The diplomatic status of three employees of the Russian Embassy in Vienna and one employee of the Consulate General in Salzburg will be revoked.
After several days of hesitation, Austria also adheres to European sanctions against Russian diplomats. As a spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) announced on Thursday, the diplomatic status of three members of the Russian Embassy in Vienna and one member of the Consulate General in Salzburg will be revoked. People must leave Austria by April 12 at the latest.
The people had performed actions incompatible with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, it was said in reference to secret service activities to the “press”, whereby they are declared undesirable persons (personae non gratae) in accordance with Article 9. th.
On Tuesday night at “ZiB2”, Schallenberg emphasized that he still had no means of expulsion. At the same time, he stressed that he wanted to act if there were “strong indications” of corresponding violations by diplomats.
The current decision follows a day after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko declared that Moscow wanted to maintain diplomatic relations with Western countries despite the expulsions.
146 persons accredited bilaterally in Austria
The four expulsions are just a symbolic step, after all Russia has bilaterally accredited 146 people in Austria. According to information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, Russia has accredited 68 diplomats and 75 administrative and technical staff in Vienna, as well as three career consuls in Vienna. If you add the Russian embassy staff in international organizations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the current total is 290 people. On the other hand, Austria accredited 33 people to its Moscow Embassy in Russia. There are 15 diplomats, eleven members of specialized departments and seven technical-administrative employees.
After the horror images of Bucha became known, several European countries announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats. It was the most radical Lithuaniahe even sent the Russian ambassador home, which amounts to a downgrading of diplomatic relations. Slovenia acted in accordance with article 11 of the Vienna Convention, which allows embassy staff to be reduced to the level of home country staff. This means that 33 of the 41 Russian diplomats need to leave Ljubljana.
The first countries to announce expulsions on Monday were Lithuania, Germany and France. Then followed on Tuesday Spain, Denmark, SwedenSlovenia, Romania, Portugal and the Baltic Republics Estonia and latvia. On Wednesday also sat Norway and Greece, which is traditionally attributed to the pro-Russian camp in the EU, this measure.
(Red/APA)