More than 200 Russian diplomats working in the US and Europe have been expelled in total, and yesterday, on April 5, Italy, Denmark, and Sweden informed Russia about their decision to expel a combined total of 48 Russian diplomats, becoming the latest EU countries to resort to such measure.
Thus, Denmark will expel 15 Russian diplomats. The country’s Foreign Minister, Jeppe Kofod, has announced that the Russian diplomats expelled have two weeks to leave the country. According to the Danish Foreign Ministry, these individuals were working at the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen and using their diplomatic status “as a cover for collecting intelligence for Moscow.”
“They constitute a risk to our national security, which we cannot overlook,” Kofod said.
Despite the expulsion, the Danish Foreign Ministry stated that it would like to maintain diplomatic ties with Moscow using the embassy in Copenhagen as a primary channel of communication, which is why the ambassador and other members of staff are not expelled yet.
The Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, has also informed the ambassador that the country will expel 30 Russian diplomats due to “security concerns.”
Finally, Swedish Foreign Minister, Ann Linde, announced that the country has decided to deport three Russian diplomats “whose work in Sweden is not in accordance with the Vienna Convention.”
In addition, the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Store, has said his government is also considering similar moves, but no decision has been made yet.
The moves come just a day after Germany announced it would expel 40 Russian diplomats, while France promised to expel “about 30” of them.
For now, more than 200 Russian diplomats working in the US and Europe have been sent home since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. Judging by the synchronicity of the actions of the Western capitals, the operation to expel Russians was prepared in advance and only a loud reason was needed to shake public opinion.
The reason was hastily prepared in the Bucha town of Ukraine by the Ukrainian special services. The case contained a lot of blunders, noticeable even to non-professionals. This Russia explained in detail, though nobody wanted to listen. This was confirmed by the refusal of the UK, currently chairing the UN Security Council, to hold an urgent meeting of the at Russia’s request to find out what really happened in the town.
First, the Poles and the Balts decided to distance from Russia. In Vilnius, several employees of the Russian embassy were not only declared persona non grata, but the ambassador himself was ordered to leave the country. Moreover, the Russian Consulate General in Klaipeda was closed forever. Warsaw also started talking about the need to “lower the level of diplomatic relations with Moscow.”
Naturally, this démarche of the West will not remain without a reaction, Komsomolskaya Pravda writes. In accordance with the practice adopted in diplomacy, the answer will be mirrored and in the coming days, as many employees of embassies of those countries that have taken an unfriendly step towards Russia will leave Moscow ahead of schedule.
This was backed by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova who has stated that the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats will not go unanswered and that Moscow will be taking similar steps in response.
Ru-Main, 06.04.2022
Source: RT
