AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra admitted on Monday that he lied about hearing Russian President Vladimir Putin make comments about plans for a “greater Russia.”

While election campaigning two years ago, Zijlstra said that in 2006 he had been at Putin’s dacha when he heard the Kremlin leader speak of plans for a “greater Russia” which would include some of Russia’s neighbors. Zijlstra has in the past said he was present as an employee of energy giant Shell at Putin’s country retreat when the Russian president said he considered Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states as part of a “Greater Russia.”

In a written statement, Zijlstra said that he was not present at the meeting in 2006 but heard the story from somebody who was there. He said he considered Putin’s statements so geopolitically important that he spoke about them publicly and took credit for hearing the comments as a way of protecting his source. Zijlstra’s admission comes ahead of a scheduled meeting on Wednesday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with relations at a poor ebb since the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 in July 2014, with 196 Dutch citizens onboard.
Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Halbe Zijlstra admits to lying about having attended a meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2006. Zijlstra had said that Putin mentioned plans to expand Russia to include Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic states but now says that he was not present and borrowed the story from a source.