The German Foreign Ministry (MFA) announced the closure of four of the five Russian consulates located in the country. This is reported by the Spiegel and Bild publications, citing the department.
The Foreign Ministry clarified that the four consulates general will have to stop their work until December 31, 2023. In addition, according to the agency, in November Germany intends to close its own consulates in Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk.
The reason for such decisions in the department was called a restriction by Moscow regarding the number of German diplomats who can work in Russia. The Russian ministry then accused Berlin of «demonstrative destruction of the entire array of Russian-German relations, including their diplomatic dimension.»