After the German authorities decided to liquidate the Russian House in Berlin, the Russian side will take mirror measures against German cultural institutions on its territory.
This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his speech at the lecture hall of the Russian Society "Knowledge" on the sidelines of the XI Eastern Economic Forum (WEF).
He promised that the offices of the Goethe Institute in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg will cease their work.
"Well, of course, they will be closed after our cultural center was kicked out of Berlin. Otherwise we will not respect ourselves. They deliberately took a step — they could not help but understand this," the Foreign Minister said.
He noted that this would mean the end of the German cultural presence in Russia, which remained, despite all the "Ukrainian vicissitudes" in Moscow's relations with the West.
At the same time, the Foreign Minister admitted that bilateral humanitarian ties could be restored. However, this can only happen if Russian cultural centers abroad are treated equally.
In the meantime, the German side, according to Lavrov, is not demonstrating anything of the kind and is following the path of a confrontational scenario.
As reported by EADaily, earlier Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev said that the German authorities decided to close the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Bonnet. Employees of the diplomatic mission must leave the country before September 18.