MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia lashed out Friday at the Netherlands for what it says was its failure to prevent a Dutch-registered Greenpeace icebreaker seized by Russian border guards in September from entering Arctic waters. The comments by Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich have cast a shadow over a visit to Moscow by Dutch King Willem-Alexander II, which is intended to mark the culmination of a year of cooperation between the two nations.
All 30 people on board the Arctic Sunrise were detained by Russian authorities after activists attempted to scale a rig belonging to state-owned gas giant Gazprom in protest against drilling in the Arctic.
“Russia has counter complaints against The Hague in connection with this incident. The current situation has, to a significant extent, been caused by Dutch negligence,” Lukashevich said at a briefing in Moscow on Friday.
“It was known that the ship arrived in Russia’s economic zone with the intention of committing a crime,” he said.
The Dutch government has taken the Arctic Sunrise case to an international tribunal, demanding Russia release both the ship and its multinational crew, who have all been charged with hooliganism. Russia has refused to participate in the arbitration process.
In a long-planned event as part of a year dedicated to celebrating Dutch-Russian ties, Dutch King Willem-Alexander arrived in Moscow on Friday for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to meet with his Dutch counterpart Frans Timmermans, who is accompanying the monarch and queen consort on their visit to Moscow.
Relations between Russia and the Netherlands have appeared to deteriorate in the wake of the dispute over the Arctic Sunrise.
The Netherlands apologized to Russia after the brief detention of a Russian diplomat in The Hague in October that was quickly followed by an apparently homophobic attack on a Dutch diplomat in his apartment in Moscow.
Earlier this year the mayor of Amsterdam declined to meet with Putin during an official Russian visit to the Netherlands, citing his opposition to Russian anti-gay propaganda legislation. Russia declined to issue visas to two Dutch journalists working on reports about the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi in September.
