Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra has resigned, a day after he admitted lying about overhearing Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. In 2016 Zijlstra alleged Putin had in 2006 expressed ambitions to create a “Greater Russia.”
The official admitted that his credibility had been damaged by the ongoing scandal to such an extent that his position had become untenable.
Halbe Zijlstra announced his resignation in an emotional speech to the House of Representatives. Zijlstra described the “Greater Russia” affair as the “biggest mistake” in his political career, adding that the country deserves a Foreign Minister who is beyond reproach.
Zijlstra’s resignation comes the day before the official’s scheduled visit to Russia, where he was expected to meet his counterpart Sergey Lavrov. It was to be the Dutch official’s very first visit to Russia.
The “Greater Russia” scandal has prematurely finished Zijlstra’s term as the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, as he assumed the post only back in October 2017.
Dutch Foreign Minister in trouble after he admits lying about meeting Putin in 2006 in his dacha (holiday house). This is what FM Halbe Zijlstra said during a speech in 2016. (including English subtitles). pic.twitter.com/SrP8DfzuS0
— Harald Doornbos (@HaraldDoornbos) 12 February 2018
The scandal has its roots in 2016, when Zijlstra claimed at a party conference that he had overheard the Russian leader Vladimir Putin talking about his plans to create a “Greater Russia” at a gathering of businessmen in 2006, at which time Zijlstra was working for the Shell oil company. The official claimed that he heard Putin talk about a “Great Russia” which included “Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states,” while “Kazakhstan was nice to have” as well.
He resigns with a large large paycheck. Job done.
Dutch Politicians should all get their stuff and get the F* out, Lying Snakes……. this is a good start…….more will follow! Hey Europe who’s next? Macaroni Rothschild perhaps?
And Europe you can stop sending your ISIS-Soldiers! The show is over……
Dutch are one of worst USA slaves. Dutch politicians are the worst. All they can do is lie. Dutch is almost an USA state. I even don’t know why Dutch are voting.
The Dutch are Big investors in The USA so significant interests… Bilderberg….. Europe….. them little cockroaches that don’t like to be in the spotlight!!! So this hurts A LOT!!
So his political life should be ended now. I don’t know how it’s revealed that he lied. Did somebody find out or was it his “conscience” ‘s work? I hope it’s the latter for his and his country’s sake.
What I’m sure about is that this lie had a big part in the “Russian aggression” ®™ narrative. How long do we have to wait so all other lies about Russia, Iran, Syria and others come to the light?
Lying is part of their jobs. They lie and then they still are in politics and have big paycheck for job done. There are no consequences for them.
Sadly you are correct Serious.
He was found out, of course. 99.99% of politicians don’t come with a conscience. After it became clear that the lie (which the PM had known about for weeks btw) was going to become public he ‘admitted’ it.
Minister Zijlstra of foreign affairs was supposed to go to Moscow this week and confront Lavrov about so-called fake news created by Russians… So his fake story against Putin resurfaced , but the Dutch employee who had truly been at the meeting with Putin declared that Zijlstra (the liar minister) had never been there .
Then Zijlstra admitted he had not been in Russia, but invented a second lie: he had reported the words of this Shell employee who had met Putin and only lied about who had met Putin, not about what Putin would have said.
Then the Shell employee made a second declaration, explaining that this is not what he heard and that he could never have said such things… showing that the new declaration was just another lie, that minister Zijlstra was a inveterate lier creating fake news all the time…
I’m sorry that you have such in your government. But, I have to confess how much better it makes me feel to hear that there are politicians in the rest of the world as bad as what we have in the US. My condolences. Yes, even when they are confessing, they are yet lying, truly amazing…they have no shame or honor what so ever.
That is not how it works in politrics. They can resign for making a mistake, but in a few years become a mayor or minister in another government again. This is the case in most countries i believe, for politrics is mostly lying…
I wonder if Dutch national has anything further to add to the lies and fairy tales of his Foreign minister ?
Over to you dutch :)
Yes, what an incredibly stupid man, who has tarnished the Netherlands image even further than it was before. I have lived and worked in that country for extended periods of my life. I like the people and found them frenziedly and straight talking. But they all had problems with the lack of interface between the Politicians and the Populous, seeing them selves as slaves without a say in their own land…………………….. welcome to the EU !
In my opinion their investigation into the MH17 was also influenced by the ‘desired’outcome of Washington and the NATO loonies.
It seems that the US/UU/UK pack of cards is collapsing daily now as the Tsunami of Truth is exposing state sponsored wrong doing. This week with all the Aid Agencies and even in the local Charity Shops :)
And the very partisan OSCE.
Yes, I agree, their conclusions were a disgrace, but more over failed to hold water when they were subjected to close inspection. This dishonesty and their apparent cowardice at Sebrinica in Bosnia has earned them a very unsavoury nick-name……… “Dutch Courage”.
The US claimed to have irrefutable evidence a few hours after the incident already and they knew for a fact Russia was behind it. The evidence has never seen by anybody however. The Ukraine has told different tales about why all their radar was offline during the incident too. And even Russia has handed over raw data. This thing stinks to high heaven.
DidntD even go to russia BUK. company did tests which proved angle of hit was incorrect
Today a bill was passed that makes you an automatic organ donor (I don’t know if this includes your eyes and skin) unless you register yourself as NOT being an organ donor. So slaves is a bit too far but we are certainly property. It’s the problem with true democracies, the majority of any population are complete self serving idiots who shouldn’t even be allowed to pick their own clothes in the morning.
A very damning condemnation Rodger…………………… so what does the majority of the population need to do to bring about real change and get them in a position to be fit for purpose ?
They should just stop electing idiots and creepy parties. But the majority is fine with anything as long as it doesn’t affect them in the near future. We are a people brought down by having it too easy for too long.
Very well said.
I see this as a consequence of privatizing hospitals . Now Dutch hospitals are run by CEOs trying to make as much money as they can …. imagine all the big money they can make by letting you die and reselling your previous organs to rich people… This is getting in the direction of the movie “The Island” (a recommend watch).
Actually a lot of countries have bills like that. On the account that A: it saves people’s lives (don’t you want to have an organ if your friggin’ life depended on it?) and B: most people just can’t be arsed to fill in a donor card.
Besides, what the fuck do I care what the government does with my body after I’m dead? It’s not like I need it anymore. I worry far FAR more about the snooping and spying the government does while I am still alive.
Name me one country with laws like that.
Belgium and Spain that I know of?
We’re not the first country to introduce such a law. We are unique that we are making such a damn fuss over it when we should be making a fuss about the hundreds of people who die needlessly every year because there not enough donor organs. But for all the doom sayers I know the perfect system. You don’t want to be a donor, you do not get to be a recipient. Seems fair, right?
https://www.thelocal.es/20170915/how-spain-became-world-leader-at-organ-transplants Wow, you’re right. The whole EU is going crazy.
Crazy? No, for once its a good thing. Our squeamishness about organ donation is causing other people to needlessly die. We’re willing to let governments take away our every rights while we live to protect us from terrorism, the chance of which this might happen is less then lightning striking. But organ donation after we die? Good heavens, now we have to keep the government out? I’d rather have the government have my body after I die then have it constantly snoop into everything I do while I’m alive.
You are a fool. Every vile attack on personal liberties always comes wrapped with a nice bow. Save the children, protect us from terrorists to allow the government to invade our privacy. Save some sick people to chip away at our rights over our own bodies. Protect us from fake news to censor the internet. etc etc. And when do you think to harvest the organs? “Furthermore, Spain considers donation after circulatory death, in which circulation, heartbeat, and breathing have stopped (as opposed to brain death, in which all the functions of the brain have stopped), even in the setting when death follows a sudden cardiac arrest in the street.” Spain actually set up a team or organ hunters that actively check patient records to see if they might donate. Seriously? Your own private medical records can be used in such a way there already? All for the greater good, just like how Lenin and Stalin and Pol Pot and Hitler etc etc etc etc etc started out. I don’t want a state that controls my life. I want a state that is as small as possible so I can life my life and everybody else gets the same chance and opportunities. But people have been lured into being sheep with easy regulated lives that required fewer and fewer choices until this moment when they actually like to be herded as sheep. Well I’ll be a sheep dog and feast on them just like the politicians and the rich. Don’t come bleating to me when you are led to the slaughter. You gave up your horns by choice.
Well, on the flipside, don’t come to me then when you’re in dire need for an organ transplant, because no one likes a free loading moocher. If it were up to me anyone who says no gets automatically excluded from any donations and everyone who couldn’t be arsed at least goes to the back of the list.
Explicit opt-out laws have long been among the major interventions used to increase the pool of potential donors in countries such as Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.
The problem is that technically they can’t harvest your organs when you are dead. You need to still be alive for your organs to be usable. This is where the problems lie. If you are still alive when they “extract” your living organs, the only person who will know if they feel the pain of the extraction is you, and you may not be able to express it to anyone.
Actually, you are wrong.
google :
A: The approximate maximum time for the following organs/tissues is: Lung (4-6 hours); Heart (4-6 hours); Liver (24 hours); Pancreas (24 hours); Kidney (72 hours); Corneas (14 days); Bone (5 years); Skin (5 years); Heart valves (10 years).
They can clone the organs much easier and safer in the long term.
That would be the ideal solution, as for one it would remove the risk of organ rejection and the need to take medicines to combat that. I’m all for it.
But then again, we never know when that would happen. Or even if. Maybe all the money for research will get funneled into something else? As an American comedian said, we were promised clean renewable energy decades ago, instead we got the smartphone. Because apparently we decided that being able to share our shit with everyone online was way more important.
Would help if you really follow what has been decided.
As of 2020 or so, anybody not registered as objecting is in principle organdonor, AFTER clinical death. However, at that time, the question will be asked again to the relatives of the deceased and if and when they object, this will count as an objection too.
Yeah, except that last part isn’t in writing, it’s not in the law and ‘clinical death’ is a fluid term. But I don’t care about the actual donating. I care about the government thinking it can take possession of my body. It’s legally mine or my families if I’m no longer a legal entity. It’s the chip, chip chipping away individual rights by an ever growing government that concerns me. Governments are very bad with responsibility as history will show you. Hell from this law to keeping the ‘clinically dead’ hooked up to the machines while waiting for the right donor is a tiny tiny step. And then it’s a small step to setting up ‘donor banks’ in some facility. Bit like the old movie Coma (pretty good watch).
Well a fun fact is that they used this lie to justify he had enough experience to get the job in the first place. So it had been widely spread around. And another nice fact that demonstrates what kind of idiots are in charge in my country is that the rest of the government and the parties that make it up (sic) said: “Yes, he lied about being in the meeting with Putin but what he said still holds up. Putin said what Zijlstra claims Putin said.” Unf$#kingbelievable!!!
It doesn’t matter every word out of a Western Diamondback Politician is a Lie… pretty easy these days……
Yes. Their heads are buried deep in the sands of NATO.
Yeah perhaps it’s time to throw away my passport… I don’t think I wanna be associated with these dutch people anymore….. can I get a new passport somewhere? I prefer a little bit honest country…..
move to mars :)))))
Ha Long Time No SEE!!! There’s me Bro Matt again…….. How are you?!! How’s the Architection goin’? Do you know where Eric isss? Can’t find him…….
happy to see this A hole resign!
Ha….. you must have had some JSF-Shares…… must have made a fortune…..
I would never buy shares in the weapon industry, i just don’t like populist and other charlatan politrics, especialy anything to do with nationalism
Me neither…. but all people should have a voice in a Democracy….. otherwise you can hardly call it a Democracy……
The majority of Dutch people are very honest Merjiin. It is the same in Britain, where honest and decent people find it very hard to accept that their leaders whom they have been bought up to respect are often corrupt and deviant charlatans.
When the masses actually realise what is being done in their name there will be serious demonstrations and even riots. When a person realises they have been betrayed they become consumed with anger and that is what the self styled elites fear the most.
If all the people knew what a lot of us already know……. the Prisons would quickly be overcrowded with Politicians & Traitors so we had to build a couple of new ones…….our countries are hijacked by Criminals……that’s my humble opinion
They are indeed hijacked but over the last few months I have detected a change in attitudes toward traditional news sources. More people in all walks of life are now considering that only half truths and lies are being broadcast and that what they say makes little sense and ‘Just does not seem right ‘.
Part of this I think is due to the internecine war of words in the US today and of course alternate media sources , often in REAL time that conflict with the old media .
One such report this week in a top selling UK newspaper stated that Israeli jets had attacked targets in Syria BUT NO mention was made of the Israeli jet that was shot down in defence by Syria. This was very dishonest reporting in my opinion.
And the Dutch never lied about MH17 either……………On July 17 the commanding officer of 156th Anti-Aircraft Regiment was instructed to conduct a training exercise of ground troops stationed near Donetsk, which involved deploying the troops, and carrying out a routine tracking and destroying of targets with the Buk-M1 missile. Sukhoi Su-25 combat aircraft participated in the exercise. This why a large group of air defense systems were deployed to the militia-held regions just before the tragedy, even though the NAF self-defense forces had no planes. And also why on the day of the crash Russia recorded that Kiev had intensified Kupol-M1 9S18 radar activity, key targeting system components.
On the same day flight MH17 stayed within its flight corridor until it reached Donetsk but then it deviated from the route to the north. A Russian monitoring system registered that there were Ukrainian Air Force jets, probably Su-24’s or Su-25’s in the immediate vicinity, eye witnesses say at least one was climbing and approaching flight MH17.
Which begs the question why was a military jet flying so close to a passenger plane? It would appear that flight MH17 had been diverted into the region of 156th Anti-Aircraft Regiment training exercises. If that is the case then it is likely that the routes of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 and a Su-25 jet overlapped. Despite flying at different levels, they would become a single dot on the radar of the missile system and of the two the system would automatically chose the larger target.
So when the civil aviation moved MH17 to a new flight path into the Ukrainian 156th Anti-Aircraft Regiment regoin doing practical exercises they could well of sealed MH17’s fate. Practical exercises with the Buk missiles in Ukraine had been banned since 2001, when a Russian Tu-154 passenger airplane en route from Novosibirsk to Tel Aviv was shot down by the Ukrainian military.
MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian SU-24/25. There were many eye witnesses and the photo’s of the cockpit clearly show 30mm cannon fire.
Why was MH17 redirected over the Ukraine?
Not only that but the altitude was also reduced, reduced to a level that a SU24/25 variant could destroy it. None of this of course is in the Dutch report which is a total pack of lies.
I can even tell you the name of the pilot who shot down MH17 captain Valarie Voloshin.
Just like the execution of Pim Fortuyn… he was against the Joint Strike Fighter so had to die….. many many sneaky things goin’ on here
Hey AIVD you know where to find Me!
Was not redirected. This was one of legal lines.
Even if it wasn’t redirected…… why fly a plane over a warzone?
Ask the firms. This was not the single one plane. Btw., the plane was shot down by rebels. I ha the video, where the commander celebrated several minutes later. In that time he did not know, that this was a civil plane. 3 days later the commander and his comrades disappeared = were eliminated.
Yeah this is the story my government told me…. and I saw pictures from a Buk Missile System….. There are many different parties that could have shot down MH17….. by accident, on purpose to gain or too lose….. the problem here is that my government has lued too many times so I don’t believe’m anymore…. whatever official story they have…… I don’t care….. They Lied……once a liar….
Wow still trolling with lies you have some serious developmental issues.
Asshole! Try to argue, you mujaheddin, and dont focus yourself on my person.
You seem to be following the US so you must be one of their Inghimasi the suicide warriors can tell by your sad attempts at trolling.
Heavy artillery can reach 10km height , the cruising altitude of an air liner. Heavy artillery rockets of the kind the peaceloving orchs liked to shoot at Donetsk reach much higher. The entire combat zone should have been blocked off from commercial flights, just like during firing drills. But Ukraine got valuable $ in fees for having their air space open for commercial flight , so I guess that is one reason.
Amazingly the US spy satellites constantly scanning the area missed the incident completely :)
Merijn sounds very dutch as well. Mayebe even dutch people have several opinions ;)
They do indeed. I know two Dutch people with differing opinions. One believes all that his government wants him to know and the other is more intelligent and can see through the veil of lies , even though he is somewhat reticent to admit it.
I have never seen any comments from dutch national about his government, mayebe i missed those…
Dutch may be embarrassed :)
I can only be embarrased by what I do, do not do, say, do not say. Dutch politics are hardly a subject here on this particular forum but where relevant I do give my opinion. Unlike many here on this forum I am not pro Russian at all, not anti either, but I do not trust Russia as Russia is, given its history of over 400 recent years, in an ongoing process of moving its borders westwards, a direction I object to.
I am firmly of the opinion, and have been for a long time, that the Netherlands has been neglecting its armed forces and I am glad there is more money invested in them at present, but we should expand our defense butget rapidly to the agreed upon 2% of GDP in 2024. This would mean an expansion of say 50%.
Furthermore, I am in general against a completely proffessional army and would prefer the Netherlands activating the still administratively existing draft system, for males but also for females.
I appreciate you asking me. but still wonder why I should be embarassed by or for any politician.
The UK Politicians that ‘represent ‘ me are an embarrassment in most of what they do. ‘ Fiddling while’st Rome burns ‘ comes to mind.
As for Russia, you forget Poland, Lithuania, Austria/ Hungary ,Germany, France who also had great expansionist ambitions in Europe and European Russia, some with great success during the last 400 years.
Even Dutch forces were fighting for Napoleon.
Well, I am Dutch. Good riddance to corrupt conservative trash as far as I’m concerned. This moron was just another American puppet. And will be replaced by just another American puppet. Left wing, right wing, it doesn’t matter. Whenever they open their mouth, whatever America wants them to say comes out. But at least I don’t have to listen to this dick for a while.
National foreign policy is remarkably consistent in every country as I’ve noticed. Russia wants to have safe borders and some buffer states alongside since the days of the czars. Nothing has really changed in that regard, except for a brief period of aberration under Yeltsin. America’s revolves around keeping down potential rivals, and of course making the world safe for Israel. And in the Netherlands it seems to be to cling to America’s mighty coat tails as tightly as possible so we don’t have to really spend any money on defense.
There is an argument that conventional defence spending on fighter jets, tanks etc is rather pointless for most countries now and that internal defence and securing borders etc is more relevant .
Without disparaging Holland in any way, your country is not in a location that can offer much defence these days anyway and offering Dutch military assets to ice the American cake in American conflicts does a disservice to Holland.
I would think that most rational Dutch people realise that Russia has no wish to use military force in the EU. In fact when we look at the EU area today ,I cannot think of any nation that would wish to take over the self inflicted problems the EU has today :)
You make a good point. Other then to provide a token contribution to American adventurism there is no point to the Dutch army. One could argue there’s a need for the Dutch navy, as we have a large merchant fleet that sometimes has to go through hotspots, like the pirate infested seas near Somalia and Southeast Asia. And for the Marines to accompany them. But then again all armies train and equip to fight the last war over again, which usually never happens. So its good to have an army that can fight all sorts of war, as its better to have them and not need then to need it and not have it. And in a defensive alliance with good neighbors its only polite to be able to come to the aid of your allies, as nobody likes a free loading moocher.
As for securing the borders, that’s best done as far away as possible. It’s good to be able to stop unwanted immigrants and smugglers at the border, but its even better to do that at the borders of the EU. Once they are in somewhere, it becomes so much harder to stop them from getting in further. I reckon again a job for which our navy would be well suited.
Yes, the Dutch Navy does serve a purpose and also has a long history with patrolling the Dutch commerce routes of course.
The Dutch (French, Swedish, German) army is much more likely to be involved in paramilitary action against entrenched jihadists in the local version of St Denis than fighting Russia.
Well, if you want a comment ;
The man was a fool to make such stupid, easily veryfiable, untrue statements.
As such it is well he is gone. The least one could expect of a seasoned politician that he lies intelligently if he or she lies at all. Other countries have much better performances then we, it seems.
Problem with many smaller nations is thay they tend to have small (minded) politicians as well. The Netherlands is no exception.
Luckily dutch government is firmly under control of Parliament and lying/misinforming to Parliament is the one absolute sin for a Dutch minister.
Thank you for your reply Dutch. I do have one question though that you may be able to answer. Is the disgraced Foreign Minister a Homosexual ?
On a positive note I applaud the general disgust of the Dutch populace toward this ‘man’. It demonstrates a far healthier and saner mindset that we see in the USA today.
Lol
Stupid idiot. Good riddance!
The downing of the NH-17 looking more and more of a false flag operation. Who ordered the change in the flight path. Why did the Ukrainian Air Force forbid the release of its Air Traffic Control, and the United States and Nato kept quiet. It has a strong smell to a False Flag Operation.
Was he lying for NATO or was he lying on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell?
Hans van Baalen (received the Ukrainan Order of Merit from Chocolate Poroshenko) is already waiting in the wings to replace him.
Like I said, just another American puppet. Nothing really changes in that regard.
Russophobia proves self-destructive.
The Dutch govt official lied ? is that even a news ? when dutch govt cover up the MH17 shotdown by ukrainie military ? they lied to their own citizens and they lied to the world..
what else is expected to come out from these vassals of US ?
i hope this is a clear sign to the dutch that they would do better to be friends with russia than be another pawn for USrael
Sad that European states perfer to be “useful vassal states2 of USA than form a relationship with Russia. They do not need to fall in love with Putin but, they can at least leave be respectful of another state like Russia who has sacrificed over 10,000,000 people to fight of the NAZIS.Russia did what UK.USA did not do. Instead,., USA/UK got together to mass murder 500,000 Germans in Dresden City. LIES will eventually come to light.
Dear O Dear :)