Status: 04/04/2022 18:33
The federal government has declared 40 Russian diplomats “undesirable people” – they have five days to leave Germany. Foreign Minister Baerbock said the people “worked against our freedom”.
40 Russian diplomats were declared “undesirable persons” in Germany. The federal government has decided to “declare as undesirable persons a significant number of members of the Russian embassy who work every day against our freedom and against the cohesion of our society here in Germany,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in Berlin. “We won’t tolerate this anymore.”
Ambassador is already informed
If diplomats are declared to be undesirables, this amounts to expulsion. The decision was communicated to Russian ambassador Sergei Nechayev in the afternoon, Baerbock said. The ambassador was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Secretary of State Andreas Michaelis and informed of the expulsion.
Interested parties have five days to leave Germany. According to this information, Russians are employees who can be considered to belong to Russian intelligence services.
Russia apparently wants to react to the expulsion. This is reported by the Interfax agency, citing the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.