{"id":393019,"date":"2026-09-07T17:35:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T17:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/393019\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T17:35:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T17:35:03","slug":"russia-announces-the-closure-of-the-german-consulate-in-st-petersburg-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/393019\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia announces the closure of the German consulate in St. Petersburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOSCOW (AP) \u2014 Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry on Monday announced the closure of the German consulate in St. Petersburg, the latest in a cycle of tit-for-tat moves following an attempted drone attack<\/a> in Leipzig that Germany blamed on Russia. <\/p>\n

The ministry said the German consulate must stop operations and its workers must leave Russia by Sept. 18. It reaffirmed the previously announced decision to shut German Goethe-Institut cultural centers<\/a> in Moscow and St. Petersburg and said their employees must leave no later than Sunday.<\/p>\n

The ministry’s statement cast the moves as retaliation for Germany\u2019s \u201cunfriendly\u201d decision Wednesday to close both the Russian consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural center in the German capital, Berlin. <\/p>\n

Germany said Russia was responsible for an attempted drone attack<\/a> at Leipzig\/Halle Airport on Aug. 4, when an explosives-laden drone was found near a Ukrainian plane. <\/p>\n

The airport is a major international freight hub used for providing support to Ukraine. The drone was later defused.<\/p>\n

Moscow has denied involvement in the drone attack and cast it as a provocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the German authorities who once again provoked a new round of escalation in bilateral relations,\u201d the Russian Foreign Ministry said. \u201cAll responsibility for the consequences lies entirely with the German government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Western officials have repeatedly accused Moscow of conducting a campaign of sabotage and disruption<\/a> in their countries with the aim of undermining support for Ukraine and destabilizing European nations, accusations Russia has rejected.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOSCOW (AP) \u2014 Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry on Monday announced the closure of the German consulate in St. Petersburg,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[156823,4075,4073,156824,2205,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-393019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-ap-online-top-international-headlines","tag-ap-top-news","tag-ap-top-news-l-twc-regions","tag-ap-top-news-international","tag-associated-press","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}