Iceland will close its embassy in Moscow on August 1

By Johannes Birkebaek

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Iceland’s Foreign Ministry will cease operations at its embassy in Moscow from Aug. 1 and has called on Russia to scale back its diplomatic activities in Reykjavik, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The ministry said the Icelandic embassy would close its operations due to the “historically low level” of commercial, cultural and political relations between the two countries.

“The current situation simply makes it unprofitable for Iceland’s small foreign service to maintain an embassy in Russia,” said Foreign Minister Thordis Gylfadottir.

The Russian ambassador was informed of the decision by the Foreign Ministry on Friday and Russia was asked to restrict the activities of the Russian embassy in Reykjavik.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries have not been severed, the ministry said, adding that the embassy will reopen once relations have normalized.

(Reporting by Johannes Birkebaek; editing by Toby Chopra)