Assault of Dutch Diplomat in Moscow Frays Ties Between Russia and the Netherlands - Main contents
MOSCOW — The year 2013 was officially supposed to be one of cultural exchange to highlight the friendship between Russia and the Netherlands.
But lately, the most common exchanges between officials have been threats and legal actions amid an intensifying quarrel over the arrest and prosecution of Dutch citizens detained by the Russian Coast Guard aboard a Greenpeace ship flagged in the Netherlands.
On Wednesday, Dutch officials were demanding an investigation after the beating of a senior diplomat in his apartment here. Two men forced their way into the apartment of Onno Elderenbosch, the Netherlands' deputy ambassador to Russia, and attacked him late Tuesday night, said Friso Wijnen, a spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry. Mr. Elderenbosch sustained minor injuries, he said.
Russian news media outlets reported that Mr. Elderenbosch's attackers were disguised as electricians, and taped his hands together before attacking him. A news service published photographs of damaged furniture in the apartment and reported that the two attackers had scrawled a heart and the letters LGBT, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, in pink lipstick on a mirror before fleeing the scene.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday tried to head off any political fallout from the attack on Mr. Elderenbosch, deploring the episode and promising to take steps to detain the two attackers, who remained unidentified as of Wednesday evening. Russian law enforcement officials said a criminal investigation into the attacks had been opened.
In the Netherlands, officials also sought to tread a delicate diplomatic line, condemning the attack on their diplomat while trying not to widen the rift with the Russian government by accusing it of complicity. The Dutch foreign minister, Frans Timmermans, spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, and received assurances that the episode was being investigated, the Dutch government said.
"There is a lot of speculation in the media, but before an investigation has come to a conclusion I don't think there is any reason to believe that this is sinister," said a Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman, who asked not to be identified by name in line with what he described as government policy.
But the confrontation with Russia has been particularly embarrassing because of the countries' official celebration of their cultural ties. "There is a string of events now that certainly puts a cloud over our friendship and affects our bilateral relationship severely," said Han ten Broeke, foreign affairs spokesman for the VVD party.
"Some of my colleagues have said on Twitter that the friendship year with Russia should be suspended or that we should cancel a visit by the king in November, but I would rather that Mr. Timmermans does not have his hands tied," he added.
The attack on Mr. Elderenbosch came 11 days after a Russian diplomat was arrested, and Russian officials said beaten, by the Dutch police at his home in The Hague.
The Netherlands has been outspoken in its criticism of Russia's recent adoption of a law banning the distribution of so-called gay propaganda among minors. Several thousand protested the law in a rally in Amsterdam in August, and the mayor of Amsterdam refused to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia during a state visit in April.
Mr. Wijnen said that the Foreign Ministry would not speculate about any motive in the attack, nor did it connect the episode with the arrest of the Russian diplomat on Oct. 5 in The Hague, who was held after neighbors expressed concerns of possible child abuse in the apartment, according to Dutch news reports.
Mr. Putin called that episode "a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention" on diplomatic relations, and the Dutch Foreign Ministry issued an apology this month.
Mr. Timmermans summoned the Russian ambassador to meet on Wednesday. He said in an online post that he would seek "clarification" about the attack on Mr. Elderenbosch.
Earlier in October, the Dutch government began an appeal to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to release two Dutch citizens and 28 others detained during a Greenpeace demonstration in Arctic waters. A Russian court in Murmansk has charged the crew of the ship, the Arctic Sunrise, with piracy for a protest in which two activists tried to scale an oil platform run by the state gas giant, Gazprom.
Russia's food safety watchdog last week responded with a threat to ban Dutch imports, saying it was unhappy with the quality of dairy and flower bulbs from the country. Russia routinely bans imports in its diplomatic disputes with other countries.
The Netherlands relies heavily on Russian energy imports to the country and through its Rotterdam port, but it also exports hundreds of millions of euros worth of flower bulbs, mainly tulips, as well as gladioluses, narcissuses and hyacinths, each year.
Andrew Roth reported from Moscow, and Stephen Castle from London.
Foto: Onno Elderenbosch