Russia’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the Dutch ambassador, Gilles Beschoor Plug, to protest an allegation that the British intelligence community attempted to recruit a Russian military diplomat in The Hague.
The alleged attempted recruitment effort took place October 20, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“He was issued a resolute protest over a recruitment approach to the military attache of the Russian embassy,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, according to TASS.
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Russia urged the Netherlands to use “exhaustive measures” to try to deter these kinds of alleged recruitment activities in the future. Moscow declared that the relationship between the Netherlands and Russia might worsen because of the incident, which Russia said proved the Dutch were allowing the British to feel too comfortable in their country and enabling them to provoke Russia, according to Dutch News.
Authorities in the Netherlands “not only don’t stop these illegal actions, but also participate in them,” the ministry said.
The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately return requests for comment. The British Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office declined to comment.
It’s not the first time the Russian government has railed against the Dutch government’s treatment of Russian diplomats. Russia alleged that the Netherlands was trying to recruit three Russian diplomats in April and previously summoned the Dutch ambassador in 2020 to complain about tracking devices that Russia allegedly found in the car of an embassy employee, an assistant to the Russian military attache.
The relationship between the Dutch and the Russians has deteriorated in recent years, particularly after the 2014 downing of the flight MH17, which was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. 193 of the 298 passengers on board were Dutch nationals.
The Netherlands and Australia early this year initiated legal proceedings against Russia over MH17, but have yet to receive an apology from Moscow, and Russia has denied involvement. Some victims’ families are holding out hope that Igor Girkin, a Russian man believed to be partly responsible for the downing of the flight, could be captured in Ukraine during the war, according to The Guardian.
The Dutch have also been instrumental in providing Ukraine with assistance in the war by providing medical and humanitarian aid, in addition to funding for investigations into alleged war crimes Russia has committed in Ukraine.
The accusation of recruitment attempts comes as intelligence agencies around the globe recognize that dissent over Putin’s unpopular war in Ukraine could present an unparalleled opportunity to recruit Russians close to sensitive information. The FBI launched a program earlier this year leveraging social media ads to try recruiting near the Russian embassy in the U.S.
“The information provided will be handled in a confidential manner, and the public’s safety and security is of the utmost importance,” the FBI’s field office told The Daily Beast.
Russia has previously pounced on perceived wrongdoing in the United States by summoning the U.S. ambassador to Russia and accusing the U.S. government of recruitment efforts. Russia summoned the U.S. Ambassador to Russia this March after U.S. President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal just weeks after Putin invaded Ukraine.
“Such statements from the American president, unworthy of a statesman of such high rank, put Russian-American relations on the verge of rupture,” Russia’s foreign ministry said.
Russia also accused the CIA of sending a recruiter to try to flip a Russian diplomat serving in the permanent mission to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons just after Russia poisoned Sergei Skripal in 2018.
The CIA declined to comment.
It’s not necessarily clear if the summoning of the Dutch ambassador will lead to any repercussions, such as expulsions of diplomats, which could broaden the disputes between Russia and the Netherlands. Russia threatened earlier this month that Moscow might sever diplomatic ties with western nations. Earlier this year, following Bulgaria’s expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats, Russia threatened to sever ties with that country.
