He had been due to debate the incident with MPs on Tuesday afternoon but resigned ahead of the scheduled debate.
Dutch foreign minister Halbe Zijlstra has resigned after admitting he lied about being in Russian president Vladimir’s dacha in 2006 when he worked for Shell and hearing Putin talk about his plans for a greater Russia.
Zijlstra had been under fire since admitting on Monday that he lied about overhearing Putin define "Greater Russia" as "Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states," then adding that "Kazakhstan was nice to have", the Dutch News reports.
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In a short statement, Zijlstra said the lie was "by far the biggest mistake I have made in my political career". "The Netherlands," he said, "deserves a foreign affairs minister who is above all reproach."
Doubts about the veracity of the foreign minister’s claims came to light when former senior Shell executive Jeroen van der Veer told the Volkskrant that Zijlstra had not been at the meeting in 2006.
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Zijlstra’s interpretation of the comments "did not come from me or from the words I used", he said. Nor does Van der Veer recognize the quote about Kazakhstan. "I don’t recall how I mentioned the specific countries to Zijlstra at the time, but 'nice to have' is not a term I would use," he told the paper.