Germany Moscow's Foreign Ministry summons Ambassador Lambsdorff
The German ambassador in Moscow, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. In a protest note, the ministry warned Germany not to cast doubt on the results of the Second World War and therefore not to recognize the southern Kuril Islands claimed by Japan as part of Russia. This is a post-war order recognized by the United Nations. "Russian sovereignty is undisputed here," the ministry stated.
04.08.2025, 19:14
SDA
The reason for the summons were statements made by the German ambassador to Japan, Petra Sigmund. Moscow accused the diplomat of questioning Russian sovereignty over the islands and thus openly attacking the territorial integrity of the country. The German side had been informed that solidarity with Japan's legally untenable territorial claims was "particularly mocking" in the year marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the destruction of a militaristic Japan.
Ambassador rejects accusations and criticizes Russia's war
"We reject the accusation that the statements allegedly violated Russia's sovereignty," the German embassy in Moscow announced. Lambsdorff criticized the fact that a visit by Ambassador Sigmund and another diplomat to the Japanese city of Nemuro on the island of Hokkaido near the southern Kuril Islands is being used as an occasion for protest, "while at the same time Russia is violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine in the most serious way every day with several hundred thousand soldiers".
The ambassador had repeatedly criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine in public. "Russia's revisionism is the problem of international politics of our time, because it is Moscow that knowingly and continuously disregards and violates both the basic principles of the European peace order and those of the UN Charter," the statement said.
It was only at the end of June that the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Ambassador Lambsdorff to inform him of "retaliatory measures" in response to the alleged persecution of Russian journalists in Germany.
