According to Reuters, the expulsion of Russian diplomats is a coordinated retaliatory step by three European countries.
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In the background of the rift between Moscow and the EU countries is the escalation of relations due to the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Russia deported diplomats last Friday after Belarusian demonstrations for the release of Navalny. According to Moscow, the diplomats in question from Germany, Poland and Sweden also took part in these unauthorized protests on January 23. Such actions are incompatible with diplomatic status, says Moscow.
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The German Foreign Ministry identified an employee of the Russian embassy in Berlin as an undesirable person. “Today, according to Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared one employee of the Russian Embassy in Berlin to be a personu non grata. With this step, the federal government responds to the decision of the Russian Federation on Friday, February 5. 2021, “the German ministry writes in a statement published on its website.
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According to Berlin, Moscow’s decision to expel EU diplomats was “in no way justified.”
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The Polish Foreign Ministry announced that it had decided to expel a Russian diplomat from the Consulate General in Poznan in response to the expulsion of its diplomat from Moscow.
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Sweden then informed Moscow that it would ask a staff member to leave the country at the Russian embassy in Stockholm. “It is a clear answer to the unacceptable decision to expel a Swedish diplomat who was only performing his duties,” Foreign Minister Ann Linde wrote on Twitter.
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