{"id":393529,"date":"2026-09-08T09:50:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/393529\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T09:50:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:50:30","slug":"russia-closes-german-consulate-in-st-petersburg-after-drone-spat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/393529\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia closes German consulate in St Petersburg after drone spat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">MOSCOW &#8211; Russia on Sept 7 ordered the German consulate in Saint Petersburg be shut, giving diplomats until Sept 18 to leave the country and demanding the employees of Germany\u2019s Goethe Institute \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/europe\/russia-to-close-branches-of-germanys-goethe-institut-after-drone-spat-foreign-minister-says?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">which it closed last week<\/a> \u2013 exit by the end of the week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Moscow-Berlin ties \u2013 already massively tense since Russia\u2019s Ukraine offensive \u2013 spiralled further last week, with Germany accusing Russia of orchestrating a drone attack on Leipzig airport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Germany last week shut Russia\u2019s consulate in Bonn and Moscow\u2019s cultural centre in Berlin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Russia\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement it was \u201crevoking its consent to the operation of the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Saint Petersburg.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It said the consulate \u201cmust cease its work no later than September 18, 2026 and all of its staff must leave the Russian Federation no later than that date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It said Goethe Institute employees must leave by Sept 13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Germany is one of Ukraine\u2019s main allies and European countries have worried over what they say are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/europe\/russia-is-escalating-hybrid-attacks-and-europe-has-no-answer?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">hybrid attacks on their soi<\/a>l.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The EU said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/europe\/eu-summons-russia-envoys-eyes-sanctions-after-germany-drone-attack?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">the incident at Leipzig airport<\/a>, which involved an explosive-laden drone, bore all the signs of \u201cstate sponsored terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Russia has dismissed the allegations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Over the weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/europe\/russias-lavrov-calls-accusations-of-moscows-involvement-in-leipzig-drone-incident-start-of-real-war?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">accused Berlin of \u201cwanting war again\u201d<\/a>. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOSCOW &#8211; Russia on Sept 7 ordered the German consulate in Saint Petersburg be shut, giving diplomats until&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-393529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","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\/393529","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=393529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}