More than 150 Russian mission staff and their family members must leave Germany after Berlin ordered Russia's last consulate in the country to close, The Moscow Times reported, citing the Russian embassy. The German government published no figure of its own and expelled nobody by name. What it did was close institutions, a step ZDF judges the hardest-hitting of the German diplomatic measures. Berlin ordered the earlier closures for a different reason: Russia had restricted German missions first.

The response Berlin chose, and the one it did not

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced the measures on 1 September with Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, after Berlin blamed Russian services for an explosive-laden drone at Leipzig/Halle airport. The Bonn consulate closes on 18 September, and the agreement covering the Russian House of Science and Culture, Moscow's state-run cultural center in Berlin, is rescinded. Germany will also propose more Russians for EU sanctions lists, tighten entry checks, and press harder on the shadow fleet of tankers moving sanctioned Russian oil, he said.

Measured against what was on the table, the package is restrained. Berlin declined to expel individual diplomats, rejected a blanket entry ban for Russian citizens, refused to designate Russia a terrorist state, and kept Moscow's ambassador in Berlin. Wadephul called the closure a serious restriction of Russian capabilities in Germany, and said he had thought it through.

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Where the figure of 150 comes from

The embassy's statement is where the number originates, and it counts families alongside staff. It described the Leipzig find as a broken drone of unclear origin that harmed nobody, and said hundreds of thousands of German citizens and Russians living in Germany lose access to consular services because of it.

German officials had put the scope differently, describing a double-digit number of affected staff. Every registered consulate employee must go, along with every Russian House worker seconded from Russia, and Berlin refused to let consulate staff transfer to the embassy.

Why the Bonn consulate

The target was not chosen at random. Citing internal information from Brussels circles, Bild reported that EU diplomats regarded it as a support point for hybrid operations against the Benelux countries, EU institutions, and NATO headquarters in Belgium. Citing security circles, the paper put 15 to 20 intelligence officers at the consulate under diplomatic cover. Germany withdrew the operating permits of four other Russian consulates in May 2023, which leaves Moscow with its embassy alone. The Bonn site stays in Russian ownership after the staff leave.

Moscow's answer

Russia's foreign ministry withdrew consent for Germany's consulate general in St Petersburg on 7 September, matching the deadline Berlin had set for Bonn. The Goethe-Institut branches in Russia close as well—Germany's state cultural institute, the counterpart to Moscow's Russian House—and their seconded staff must leave by 13 September.

Five weeks from a drone near a runway to two consulates ordered shut

• On the night of 4 August and into 5 August, a drone carrying explosives turned up beside a Ukrainian An-124 at Leipzig/Halle, where it lay unnoticed for hours.
• Four weeks later, on 1 September, Berlin blamed Moscow and set out its measures.
• The next day German officials gave their own order of magnitude at a government briefing, and it was a double-digit number rather than three figures.
• On 4 September the closure order and its 18 September deadline were public, with the Russian embassy confirming them.
• On 5 September, with the attribution four days old, German investigators suspected Russian intelligence behind an arson attack on a defense company.
• Two days after that, on 7 September, Moscow ordered the closure of the German consulate in St Petersburg and the Goethe institutes.
• On 9 September, Romania revealed it had tracked a Russian agent filming NATO bases and Ukrainian Antonov cargo planes for seven months.
• On 10 September, the Russian embassy put its own number on the outcome: more than 150 people leaving.