Iceland has announced the closure of its embassy in Moscow from August 1 due to the situation related to the conflict in Ukraine. Russia promised this Saturday to respond after that announcement.
It is the first country to make such a decision since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Iceland decided on Friday June 9th to close its embassy in Moscow due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
“Any anti-Russian actions by Reykjavik will inevitably provoke a reaction,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement, accusing Iceland of “ruining” relations between the two countries.
“We will take this friendly decision into account when building our relations with Iceland in the future,” he added, saying that “full responsibility for this development” rests with Reykjavik.
“Reduce level of representation”
In the Russian capital, the flag of the Icelandic embassy was symbolically removed from the representation on Friday afternoon, an AFP team noted. Iceland also called on Moscow to “limit the activities” of its embassy in the Icelandic capital and “reduce the extent of representation there”. However, Reykjavik added that this was not a severing of diplomatic ties.
The Nordic country of 375,000 has had an embassy in Moscow since 1944, except for the period 1951-1953. At the end of the Cold War, it had been a symbolic meeting place between East and West.