At least four European allies are expelling dozens of Russian diplomats in what appears to be a coordinated effort to combat Russian espionage
By MIKE CORDER Associated Press
Mar 29, 2022 at 4:39 p.m
• 3 minutes reading time
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail this article
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — At least four European allies expelled dozens of Russian diplomats on Tuesday in what appears to be a coordinated action to combat Russian espionage.
The expulsions come as relations between Russia and the West have entered a deep freeze following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Netherlands said it would expel 17 Russians it described as intelligence officers disguised as diplomats. Belgium announced that it would expel 21 Russians. The Czech Republic gave a Russian diplomat 72 hours to leave the country. Ireland ordered four senior Russian officials to leave the country over activities deemed “not in line with international standards of diplomatic conduct”.
North Macedonia announced late Monday that it would expel five Russian diplomats for “activities in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
“Together with our allies, we are reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU,” the Czech foreign ministry said.
Poland last week expelled 45 Russians whom the government had identified as intelligence officers using their diplomatic status as a cover for operations in the country.
The Netherlands said it made its decision in consultation with “a number of like-minded countries,” citing similar expulsions by the United States, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Montenegro.
“The cabinet decided this because of the national security threat posed by this group,” the Dutch ministry said in a statement. “The intelligence threat to the Netherlands remains high. The current stance of Russia more broadly makes the presence of these intelligence officers undesirable. The deportation is a national security measure.”
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said he was prepared for a retaliatory strike from Moscow.
“Experience shows that Russia does not leave such measures unanswered,” he said. “We cannot speculate on that, but the State Department is prepared for various scenarios that may materialize in the near future.”
This was demonstrated earlier Tuesday when Russia said it had expelled a total of 10 diplomats from the three Baltic EU states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in retaliation for those countries expelling Russian diplomats earlier this month.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was withdrawing the accreditation of four Lithuanian diplomats, three Latvians and three Estonians, and they would have to leave the country. That’s the number of Russian diplomats each country has previously expelled.
On March 18, the three Baltic states ordered the expulsion of ten Russian embassy employees in a coordinated action in solidarity with Ukraine.
Moscow called this step “provocative and completely unfounded” and called the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian ambassadors in Moscow to an official protest.
———
Follow all AP reports on Russia’s war against Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.