Russia to close Goethe-Institut centres as Germany tensions escalate

By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and Reuters. Published On 3 Sep 20263 Sep 2026.

Key points

• Russia's first Goethe-Institut opened in Moscow in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• "We will not let an act of such gravity go unpunished, " French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot remarked, adding he had called in Russia's envoy in Paris.
• German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday accused Russia of being behind the "hybrid attack".
• The Kremlin remarked on Thursday that Germany was displaying an inconsistent and absurd position by choosing to shutter the Russian consulate in Bonn.
• On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin accused Germany of planting evidence so as to blame Moscow for the drone incident.

After Germany blamed Moscow for a drone incident at the Leipzig/Halle airport last month and noted it would shutter a Russian cultural centre in Berlin and a consulate in Bonn, russia notes it will close Germany's Goethe-Institut cultural centres, Russian state media has noted.

After Germany's decision to halt the operation of a Russian cultural centre in Berlin, foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked on Wednesday that Russia would close the centres in the cities of Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.

"They deliberately took this step – they could not have failed to understand – which means the end of their cultural presence in Russia, " Lavrov remarked, according to state news agency TASS.

In practice, the Goethe-Institut cultural centres had stayed open "despite all the Ukrainian complications in our relations with the West, " he continued.

For context, the Kremlin remarked on Thursday that Germany was displaying an inconsistent and absurd position by choosing to shutter the Russian consulate in Bonn.

Last month's incident involving an explosive-laden drone that began the chain of events has heightened fears over a sabotage campaign that the European Union and NATO say is a Russian attempt to destabilise Ukraine's allies.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday accused Russia of being behind the "hybrid attack". The drone at Leipzig-Halle airport was discovered near a Ukrainian cargo plane on the evening of August 4 and defused.

"It is clear that it has all the hallmarks of state- terrorism, " EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas remarked at a gathering of the bloc's foreign ministers in Ireland. "The question is, what do we do about this?"

Kallas remarked the EU had summoned the Russian envoy, and member states were doing the same.

According to Kallas, EU foreign ministers agreed to keep working on a proposal to impose sanctions on 1, 600 individuals and entities linked to Russia's military industry in the hope of adopting them next month.

"Seeing these hybrid attacks across Europe, I think these are also wake-up calls for the countries who have not been so strong. On this, " she remarked.

"If we want to end this war, we all have to focus our efforts. Take it to a new level."

Russia's first Goethe-Institut opened in Moscow in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. After a diplomatic spat with Britain, Russia ordered the closure of its British Council in 2018.

On Wednesday, Lavrov's deputy, Alexander Grushko, remarked Russia would retaliate "very soon" for the closure of the Bonn consulate.

In short, russia to close Goethe-Institut centres as Germany tensions escalate is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.