18.10 Burglary in Russian Embassy House in The Hague Report
MOSCOW, October 18 (RIA Novosti) A house located near the Embassy of Russia in The Hague and managed by the Russian diplomatic mission was burglarized Thursday night, Dutch daily NL Times reported Friday.
The daily cited eyewitnesses saying that the police arrived at the premises, used to house embassy staff, in five minivans and investigated the scene for about two hours.
Police collected evidence but did not say if anything was stolen from the premises, the daily added.
Another Dutch daily, Telegraaf, reported that Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans has already announced his regret in connection with the burglary.
Russia and the Netherlands were earlier in October involved in a row over an apparent beating and detention of a Russian diplomat. Russia reacted angrily to the detention, saying it violated international rules granting immunity to diplomats, and demanded immediate apologies.
The Netherlands later apologized to Russia for the incident. Russian media reported that local police forced their way into the apartment of Dmitry Borodin, deputy to the ambassador at the embassy in the Netherlands, assaulted him, and then held him at a police station for several hours without explanation.
Borodins arrest, however, was just one of a string of developments that recently kept fraying diplomatic ties between the countries.
The Netherlands Embassys deputy chief of mission, Onno Elderenbosch, was attacked and tied with tape at his Moscow apartment Tuesday night. Russian state television broadcast photos taken inside Elderenboschs home showing a heart sign and the letters LGBT - an acronym standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual - scrawled in lipstick on a mirror. No suspects have yet been identified.
Russia and the Netherlands have also been engaged in a row over Russian authorities seizure in September of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship and its prosecution of the people onboard on charges of piracy.
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