04/19/2022 23:24 (act 04/19/2022 23:30)
Russia expels European diplomats ©APA/THEMENBILD
Russia on Tuesday ordered the expulsion of dozens of European diplomats. Among other things, four Austrian diplomats would have to leave the country, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said. It was a retaliatory measure for the expulsion of Russian diplomats in connection with the war in Ukraine. For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vienna, this step came “not surprisingly”. On 7 April alone, Austria expelled four Russian diplomats.
“We regret this unjustified decision by Russia, which has no basis in fact. The officials of the Austrian embassy in question perform their duties exclusively within the framework of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” said a statement on Tuesday. The functionality of the embassy in Moscow will continue to be of interest to Austrians in Russia and to maintain channels of communication, continued the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Austrian ambassador to Moscow, Werner Almhofer, had already been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday. According to the Russian ministry, a “decisive protest” was made to him against the baseless declaration of “personae non gratae” by four officials of Russian agencies in Austria. The four Austrians had to leave Russia by April 24, he said.
According to the Russian embassy, four Russian diplomats left Austria before the “necessary date”. The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week revealed the identities of three of these four people: the defense attaché, a deputy consul at the consulate general in Salzburg, a first secretary at the embassy, who was also an adviser to the permanent representative to international bodies. , Mikhail Ulyanov.
In addition to the Austrian diplomats, 14 employees at the Dutch Embassy in Moscow and an employee at the Dutch Consulate General in St. Petersburg are also affected by the expulsions by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Dutch would have to leave Russia within two weeks, the ministry said in a statement. Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said he “regrets” Moscow’s decision.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Luxembourg ambassador was summoned on Tuesday to protest “decisively” against the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from Luxembourg. Russia reserves “the right to retaliate” for this “unfriendly and unfounded” measure, the ministry said.
In recent weeks, several European countries, including Austria, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, have expelled dozens of Russian diplomats. In some cases, this was explicitly justified by the Russian military operation in Ukraine, in other cases it was allegations of espionage, and Moscow reacted by expelling dozens of European diplomats.
In such cases, Russia reacts by repeatedly expelling a similar number of diplomats. In early April, Germany declared 40 Russian diplomats “undesirable”. Moscow has not yet responded to this.