Russia shuts Goethe centres as Germany escalates hybrid attack row

Russia will shut German cultural centres after Berlin moved against Russian facilities. The tit-for-tat step deepens Europe's standoff with Moscow over alleged hybrid attacks tied to the Ukraine war.

In Short

• Germany linked Moscow to a drone incident at Leipzig/Halle freight airport
• Berlin closed the Russian Consulate in Bonn and Russian House
• Several European countries summoned Russian diplomats after Germany's latest allegations

Russia said on Thursday it will close German cultural centres on its territory, in a retaliatory move that adds to rising tensions between Moscow and European countries backing Ukraine against the Kremlin's 4 1/2-year-old invasion. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Germany's Goethe-Institut centres in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg would be shut after Berlin moved against Russian facilities in Germany.

The announcement came after Germany blamed Moscow for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport on August 4. An explosives-laden drone was found near a Ukrainian plane at the airport, a major international freight hub used to support Ukraine, and was later defused. Earlier on Thursday, several incendiary devices were thrown at a construction site in Munich near a building housing several companies, including firms from the defence sector. Police said there was a brief fire with no significant damage. Two Bulgarian nationals were arrested, though police said their suspected involvement had not been confirmed.

Western officials have repeatedly accused Moscow of running a sabotage and disruption campaign in their countries to undermine support for Ukraine and destabilise European nations, an allegation Russia denies. Germany has said it has become a "daily target" of the Kremlin's hybrid campaign. On Wednesday, Berlin said it was closing the Russian Consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural centre in the German capital.

Lavrov said any other response by Moscow would show a lack of "self-respect". Speaking at an economic forum in Vladivostok, he said Germany "could not have failed to understand" that closing the centre in Berlin would "signify the end of their cultural presence in Russia". President Vladimir Putin said Berlin wanted to distract from its own failings and dissatisfaction among voters, and said any proof being offered "has been planted".

European countries increasingly say they are facing hybrid attacks from Russia, including cyberwarfare and disinformation, alongside the broader military threat. Both sides accuse each other of state terrorism. The issue has grown into a major foreign and defence policy challenge for European Union countries. Last year, the head of Britain's MI6 said Putin was testing the West with tactics that fall "just below the threshold of war" and was determined to "harass NATO members".

After Germany's allegations, Poland, Denmark, Finland, the UK, the Czech Republic and Lithuania summoned Russian diplomats. In Norway, authorities on Wednesday seized a Russian vessel in Svalbard at the request of Ukraine's state-owned Naftogaz energy group. A Norwegian court ordered the seizure as Naftogaz seeks to recover a USD 4.22 billion arbitration award linked to Russia's 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea and its seizure of Ukrainian energy assets, including gas fields and pipelines. Putin called the move "state terrorism". Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned Norway's ambassador in Moscow, Heidi Olufsen, and said the vessel belonged to the state weather and environmental monitoring agency and was carrying workers, scientists and cargo to Russian settlements. It said Moscow "will seek to lift the vessel's arrest".

In Finland, more than 2,000 people took part on Thursday in what was described as the biggest civil defence exercise in Europe since the end of World War II, with missile strikes from neighbouring Russia among the threats envisaged. EU ministers on Wednesday discussed how to respond to the attempted drone attack without resorting to military means. The bloc has already imposed almost two dozen sanctions packages on Russia over the war, targeting more than 3,000 officials, oligarchs and entities, including banks, energy companies and drone makers. EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Bartjan Wegter said anti-terrorism procedures could be used more effectively. "If we list individuals as terrorists, we can deploy a range of instruments to actually target those individuals and to track them, all their activities and people associated with those individuals," he said. He added that tools used against terrorist financing and money laundering, as well as stronger protection for infrastructure such as airports, could help. Calling the Leipzig incident "a very worrying development", Wegter said "it is not new what we're seeing" and added: "They're actually deploying terrorist tactics" meant to "destabilise our society".

Danish security services have also warned that Russian acts of sabotage against the country's defence industry may be imminent. Emil Graesholm, head of counterintelligence at PET, told Berlingske newspaper that intelligence services had seen signs of specific planning by Russia to carry out sabotage operations in Denmark, mainly against defence companies and especially those linked to supplying military components to Ukraine. Russian Ambassador Vladimir Barbin said PET had not presented any concrete evidence that Moscow was preparing sabotage acts in Denmark, and said the comments amounted to an acknowledgement of Denmark's involvement in Ukraine. He added that turning Danish territory into a production and logistics base for the Ukrainian military posed a security risk to Denmark. Italy's Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told AP on Wednesday that the German airport incident was "a very serious act that could have very grave consequences". He said the threats were not discouraging Italy from continuing to help Kyiv as Rome considers whether to send SAMP/T air defence batteries, though limited weapons production capacity was affecting efforts to supply more to Ukraine. Overall, Thursday's developments brought together Russia's move against German cultural centres, fresh security concerns across Europe and continued EU discussions on how to respond.

With PTI Inputs

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