German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced a series of domestic countermeasures, including the closure of the Russian consulate in Bonn on September 18, stricter entry controls for Russian citizens and the termination of the agreement governing the Russian House in central Berlin, a cultural institution suspected of serving as a center for espionage operations and whose Russian operator is under EU sanctions. Germany will also propose new EU sanctions against Russian individuals linked to hybrid attacks, while pushing to increase measures targeting Russia’s shadow fleet, Wadephul said. His comments come as EU foreign ministers meet in Ireland on Tuesday night and Wednesday. “The matter, including additional sanctions, will be prepared by the foreign ministers at their next meeting,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media after the press conference. “If the seriousness of the events is confirmed,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told reporters earlier on Tuesday morning, “there will inevitably be consequences, particularly with regard to sanctions that could be imposed on Russia.” Berlin’s response marks a hardening in the German government’s approach to Russia under Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Merz has long maintained that Germany is neither at war nor at peace, but it is rare for Berlin to so definitively attribute a hybrid attack to Russia and take specific countermeasures. “NATO stands in full solidarity with Germany following the Russian hybrid attack in Leipzig,” the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, said in X. “I welcome the measures announced by Germany in response,” he added. This story is being updated.
