Diplomats “worked every day against our freedom, against the cohesion of our society,” says Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. 40 diplomats must leave Berlin and 35 Paris.
Germany and France want to expel several Russian diplomats. Specifically, Berlin declared 40 Russian diplomats “undesirable people”. According to the Russian embassy in Berlin, after Germany’s step, relations between the two countries will “deteriorate”. According to information from French ministerial circles, 35 Russian diplomats are due to leave the country. Its activities are said to contradict France’s security interests.
“The unjustified reduction of diplomatic personnel from Russian missions in Germany will reduce the space for maintaining dialogue between our countries, which will lead to a further deterioration of German-Russian relations,” the Russian mission in Germany wrote on Telegram. According to information from Berlin, all Russian diplomats declared “undesirable” in the Federal Republic work for their country’s secret services.
Suspected connection to Russian intelligence service
We selected 40 people that we assigned to Russian intelligence services,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday night, undesirable people who worked every day here in Germany against our freedom, against the cohesion of our society. “, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. If diplomats are declared to be undesirables, this amounts to expulsion.
The work of the affected Russian diplomats “is a threat to those seeking protection from us,” Baerbock explained. “We will not tolerate this any longer. We will inform the Russian ambassador this afternoon.”
Russian Ambassador Sergey Nechaev 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.
Baerbock: “They are ready to defend freedom”
Of the atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, Baerbock said these images “witness the unbelievable brutality of the Russian leadership” and those who followed its propaganda, “of a will to annihilate that transcends all borders”. Similar images are to be feared in many other places Russian troops occupied Ukraine. “We must fight this inhumanity with the strength of our freedom and our humanity”, explained the minister. “But it must also be clear that we must defend our freedom and be prepared to defend it.”
After Russian troops withdrew from the Kiev suburbs, hundreds of bodies were discovered in Bucha. Ukraine blames Russian troops, who until recently occupied the small town, for the massacre. Moscow denies this.
Two employees were already expelled in December
Baerbock emphasized that the federal government will initiate new reactions together with Germany’s partners. “We will tighten existing sanctions against Russia even further, we will resolutely expand our support for the Ukrainian armed forces and we will also strengthen NATO’s eastern flank.”
Recently, the German federal government has repeatedly expelled Russian diplomats as a sanction. In December, as a result of a murder conviction in Berlin against a Russian, she declared that two Russian embassy employees were “undesirable persons”. Last week, Belgium expelled 21 Russian diplomats on espionage charges. The Dutch foreign minister also announced that 17 Russian diplomats would be expelled on espionage charges. The Czech Republic also expelled a Russian diplomat from the country.
(APA)