Russia will close the cultural centers of the German Goethe Institute after Germany's decision to cease operations of the Russian House in Berlin in response to a drone attack in Leipzig, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.
"Of course, they will be closed after our cultural center was expelled from there," Lavrov said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, BBC reports.
Germany officially accused Russia of an attempted act of sabotage in connection with an incident involving an explosives-laden drone, which was discovered a month ago at Leipzig airport. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced that in response to this attempted sabotage, Germany would close the Russian consulate in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Germany of fabricating evidence with the aim of placing responsibility for the incident on Moscow.
According to Lavrov, "the Germans have Goethe Institute branches here — in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg."
"Well, of course, they will be closed after our cultural center was expelled from there. Otherwise, we won't respect ourselves," the minister said.
According to the Goethe Institute itself, the third branch in Russia is not in Yekaterinburg, but in Novosibirsk.
According to the Russian minister, the German authorities "are deliberately taking a step that unequivocally means the termination of their cultural presence in the Russian Federation, which had been maintained despite all the 'Ukrainian vicissitudes' in our relations with the West."
Now, Lavrov added, they "will no longer have direct opportunities to work with our population."
The first Goethe Institute in Russia opened in Moscow in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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