Netherlands considers offering apologies to Russia over diplomat beating

The Netherlands will offer apologies to Russia, if it is found that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations was violated in an incident with the Russian diplomat, spokesman of the Dutch Foreign Ministry Thijs van Son told Itar-Tass here on Tuesday. “The Netherlands confirms that the incident with the Russian diplomat had occurred overnight to Sunday that resulted in his arrest by the Dutch police,” he said, adding that the country’s law enforcement agencies are conducting an investigation in the incident. “If the evidence is found that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations was violated the Netherlands will offer apologies to Russia,” the spokesman of the Dutch Foreign Ministry said. “Today Russian and Dutch Foreign Ministries have discussed this issue,” Van Son added. Overnight to Sunday, Minister-Counsellor of the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands Dmitry Borodin was beaten up by the Dutch police in his flat in The Hague. Borodin told Itar-Tass on Monday that people in police uniform called in his flat in The Hague “under the false pretext” overnight to Sunday, October 6. Borodin noted that they had not produced any identity cards verifying that they were the policemen. “They said that my neighbours had allegedly informed about bad attitude to children in this flat. I have two children - a four-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son,” the diplomat said. He noted that he warned them about his diplomatic status and tried to prevent them from breaking in the flat. However, the policemen have brought him down on the floor and put the handcuffs on him. “I was also hit by a stick on the head,” the diplomat noted. In the words of Borodin, he was brought to a police station together with his children, from where a duty diplomat of the Russian Embassy had taken later without waiting for apologies from the Netherlands. Then he also noted on his Twitter page and that a forelock was torn from his daughter who did not want to go the police station. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated on Monday that the ministry sends a harsh note of protest to the Netherlands over the attack on the minister-counsellor of the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands. The Dutch ambassador in Russia was summoned in the Russian Foreign Ministry and the note of protest was given to him on Tuesday. Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich saidMOSCOW, October 8 (Itar-Tass) that Netherlands’ reaction to the incident involving a Russian diplomat was unacceptable and obscure, Such reaction does not correspond to the level of Russian-Dutch relations, Lukashevich said. “The Russian Foreign Ministry studied the attack on counsellor of the Russian Embassy in the Hague Dmitry Borodin. But the ministry is dissatisfied with its results,” Lukashevich said. “The Netherlands’ attempt to justify policemen’s tough actions is wet,” the diplomat said, adding, “The facts prove: at night policemen break into an apartment of the high-ranking Russian diplomat, beat him, handcuff and take him to a police station, and ban him to contact the Russian embassy.” “All rights have been violated towards Dmitry Borodin. Silence is a response,” Lukashevich said. Russia “continues to wait for sufficient explanations and the apologies from the Netherlands. The country should take efficient measures to punish those who organised and took part in the provocation”, he added.