Netherlands–Russia relations

Peter the Great whilst on his tour of western Europe (1697-1698) visited the Netherlands and practised as a shipwright in Zaandam. During his stay he managed to recruit some Dutch maritime expertise for the newly established Russian navy. One of the most notable Dutch members of the Russian navy was the Norwegian-born captain Cornelius Cruys, who after several years of service reached the rank of admiral and became the first commander of the Baltic Fleet.

Statue of Peter the Great in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Tsar Alexander I of Russia played a central role in the restoration of the Netherlands. Alexander promised to support Prince William and help restore an independent Netherlands with William as king. Russian and Prussian troops drove out the French in 1813.

Since the Russian Revolution, the Netherlands did not have any diplomatic relationships with the Soviet Union until the end of the Second World War.[3] During the war, the Dutch government was in exile.

During WW2, 25.000 Dutch volunteers[4] joined the Waffen SS, and fought on the Eastern front against the Soviet Union. They were not supported by the government in exile.

During the Cold War, all the Dutch consecutive governments perceived the Soviet Union and the Warsaw pact as a threat to its safety.

Nord Stream 1 opening ceremony on 8 November 2011 with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

Ukrainian flags in front of the Russian embassy in the Hague as protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine

As the Netherlands is a member of the European Union, the relation between Russia and the Netherlands is closely related to the Russia–European Union relations.

In October 2011 president Dmitry Medvedev met in the Kremlin with the Prime Minister of Netherlands Mark Rutte to discuss bilateral ties.[5]

Aside from commerce and politics, there have been some notable Dutch influence on Russian football, with Guus Hiddink in 2006–2010 followed by Dick Advocaat in 2010–2012 as head coach of the Russian national team.[6]

In the year 2013 a number of cultural activities took place in the Netherlands and Russia to celebrate 400 years of diplomatic ties.[7] Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Amsterdam. In October 2013, the ties between the countries were strained when a group of Greenpeace activists were arrested during a protest on an Arctic oil rig owned by Gazprom. On October 9, the minister counsellor Dmitri Borodin, working at the Russian embassy in The Hague, was detained after allegations of abusing his children.[8] Dutch minister of foreign affairs Frans Timmermans apologized later for the violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Subsequently, on October 15, the Dutch diplomat Onno Elderenbosch was physically attacked in his apartment in Moscow by two men posing as electricians.[9] During the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, Vladimir Putin visited the Holland Heineken House and drank a beer with King Willem Alexander.

Since March 2014 the Netherlands participated in the European Union economic sanctions against Russia due to the Ukraine crisis. In August 2014 Russia installed a retaliatory boycott of EU agricultural products.[10]

Relations were further strained when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, an airliner carrying 193 Dutch nationals, was shot down over Eastern Ukraine in July 2014, by a BUK missile launcher.[11] A few years later, a Dutch court found two Russians and a Ukrainian guilty. It is unlikely that these people will serve their sentences.[12]

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine started, the Netherlands, as one of the EU countries, imposed sanctions on Russia, and Russia added all EU countries to the list of "unfriendly nations".[13] The Netherlands joined other countries in spring 2022 in declaring a number of Russian diplomats Persona non grata.