Moscow closes Goethe-Institut offices in Russia

Russia’s response to the German decisions of September 1 now has its first operational content: on September 3, on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Foreign Minister Sergej Lavrov announced the closure of Goethe-Institut offices in Russia (Meduza, Kyiv Independent). We reported on the earlier phase — the measures under consideration in Brussels and the summoning of ambassadors — on September 2.

Lavrov explicitly linked the decision to the fate of the Russian cultural center in Germany: “Naturally they will be closed, after our cultural center was thrown out of there” (transl. from Russian), he said in Vladivostok (Kyiv Post).

One point remains uncertain and must be stated as such: available sources disagree on which offices are affected. Some indicate Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk, others Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg (Meduza, Kyiv Independent). The announcement is at present not accompanied by an official list or an effective date. The first Goethe-Institut in Russia opened in Moscow in 1992 (Kyiv Post): the German cultural institute’s presence in the country thus spans more than thirty years, and this is the first time it has been interrupted in full as a result of a Moscow decision.

On the German side, the terms are more defined. On September 1 Berlin ordered the closure of the Russian consulate general in Bonn by September 18 and denounced the 2011 agreement on cultural centers, a step that entails the closure of the Russian House in Berlin (Kyiv Independent, United24 Media). Bonn was Russia’s last remaining consulate general in Germany: on September 2 the office announced the suspension of consular case processing (United24 Media). The practical effect concerns Russian citizens residing in the Rhineland and the regions served by the office, who from September 18 will have to turn elsewhere.

According to Russian state agency TASS, Ambassador Sergej Nechaev claims that Berlin has ruled out transferring Bonn’s consular staff to the embassy in the capital (TASS). The claim comes from a single Russian state source and remains, at present, a partisan statement, lacking independent corroboration or confirmation from the German Foreign Ministry.

In the background remains the explosive drone incident in Leipzig/Halle on August 4, for which Moscow denies any responsibility (Kyiv Independent).

The day’s tally is this: two cultural institutions closed by both sides, a consulate that stopped accepting cases as early as September 2, ahead of the September 18 deadline set by Berlin, and no official list of the German offices affected in Russia.

Sources: Meduza; Kyiv Post; Kyiv Independent; United24 Media; TASS (Russian state agency).