Russian summons Italian, Dutch ambassadors

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday summoned separately Italian and Dutch ambassadors to discuss controversial aspects of bilateral ties.

To Italian ambassador Giorgio Starace, the ministry expressed its protest over discrimination of some Russian culture workers, whose performances were canceled at the decision of Italian authorities.

"Russia remains open to dialogue in the field of culture and does not intend to impose restrictions on cultural figures from Italy, of course, if the Italian side complies with the conditions of equality and reciprocity in the implementation of relations in this area," the ministry said in a statement.

The diplomatic service also protested against Italian weapons supplies to Ukraine.

From Dutch ambassador Gilles Arnout Beschoor Plug the ministry demanded to stop "the intrusive attempts ... to groundlessly hold the Russian Federation responsible for the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in the skies over Donbass on July 17, 2014."

"Once again, it is pointed out the politicized nature of the work of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) headed by the Prosecutor's Office of the Netherlands, which for eight and a half years was engaged in adjusting the evidence base to a pre-selected version of the tragedy and neglected the obvious facts that contradicted it," the ministry said.

The ministry reiterated Moscow's position -- the Russian side does not recognize the results of the investigation, in which it did not take a full part and from which it was suspended from the beginning.

The ambassador was also notified of obstacles for the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands, including the Hague's "destructive position" regarding visa issues.