The Dutch government said on Saturday it would close its consulate in St Petersburg, Russia and it would limit the number of Russian diplomats allowed in the Russian embassy in The Hague.
Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a statement, “Russia continues to try to secretly smuggle intelligence agents into the Netherlands under the guise of diplomacy. We cannot and will not allow this to happen.”
“At the same time Russia refused visas to Dutch diplomats who would work at the consulate in St. Petersburg or the embassy in Moscow.”
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it would respond to the move, the RIA news agency reported.
The Dutch government said it had decided to limit the number of diplomats in the Dutch embassy in Moscow to the number of diplomats in the Russian embassy in The Hague.
“A number of diplomats will therefore have to leave the country within two weeks,” the foreign ministry said in a statement without giving a specific number.
The Dutch government also ordered the closure of the Russian trade office in Amsterdam by Tuesday.
The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification. Only the headline has been changed.
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