MOSCOW. Feb 17 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the ambassadors of the Netherlands and Italy, the ministry said on Friday.
Italian Ambassador Giorgio Starace, who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Friday, "was notified of Russia's perplexity over the cancellation of shows by a number of Russian performers in the Republic of Italy lately," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
The ministry described the Italian leadership's decision as one manifesting a trend toward discriminating against Russian art figures and narrowing cultural and humanitarian exchanges.
"As was declared to the ambassador, Russia remains open to a cultural dialogue and is not planning to impose restrictions on culture figures from Italy, certainly, if the Italian side adheres to the principles of equality and reciprocity in maintaining ties in this field," it said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry had also summoned Ambassador Gilles Arnout Beschoor Plug of the Netherlands on Thursday.
"We demanded that the Dutch authorities stop importunate attempts to groundlessly blame the Russian Federation for the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in the skies over Donbass on July 17, 2014," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow views the Joint Investigation Team's work as politicized and its statement on suspending the investigation as one "proving that the investigation has exhausted arguments to uphold its one-sided accusative position," it said.
"It was emphasized that Russia does not recognize the findings of the investigation in which it has not been properly involved and from which it has been removed from the start," it said.
The ambassador was also told that the obstruction of the Russian embassy to the Netherlands from performing its functions was unacceptable and that The Hague's position on visa matters was destructive, it said.
"We called for abandoning the language of ultimatums and resuming constructive discussions on the existing debatable issues," it said.