Russia announced it would close Germany's Goethe cultural centers in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, after Germany decided to halt operations of a Russian cultural center in Berlin and a consulate in Bonn. The information was confirmed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on September 3.
According to the TASS news agency, Lavrov said the German side had deliberately taken a step whose consequences it knew well, effectively ending Germany's cultural presence in Russia. He stressed that the Goethe centers had continued operating “despite all the complexities of Ukraine in relations with the West.”
On the same day, a Kremlin spokesman said Germany was showing an “inconsistent and irrational” stance by closing Russia's consulate in Bonn. Germany had earlier accused Russia of being behind a drone incident at Leipzig/Halle airport, defused on the evening of August 4 near a Ukrainian cargo aircraft.
The episode raised concerns about sabotage campaigns that the EU and NATO accuse Russia of orchestrating to destabilize Ukraine's allies. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on September 2 condemned it as a “hybrid attack,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Germany of fabricating evidence to lay blame.
In response, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at a meeting of bloc foreign ministers in Ireland that the incident “bore all the hallmarks of state terrorism” and called on EU members to summon Russian ambassadors. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also said such actions “would not go unpunished.”
EU foreign ministers agreed to continue building a proposal to impose sanctions on 1,600 individuals and entities linked to Russia's military industry, expected to be adopted next month. Kallas warned that this wave of hybrid attacks was a wake-up call for those not yet tough enough, while emphasizing the need to focus efforts on ending the war.
The first German Goethe cultural center opened in Moscow in 1992. Previously, Russia had demanded the closure of the British Council in 2018 during a diplomatic dispute with Britain. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Moscow would respond “very soon” to Germany's closure of the consulate in Bonn.
