Germany, Sweden and Poland expel Russian diplomats

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Germany, Sweden and Poland announced today, Monday, that they have expelled 3 Russian diplomats, as part of the reciprocity policy.

In a statement, the German Foreign Ministry said that it declares an employee of the Russian Embassy in Berlin persona non grata in accordance with the Vienna Agreement on Diplomatic Relations, which was concluded on April 18, 1961.

The ministry confirmed that this measure is a response to Russia's decision on February 5 to expel 3 diplomats from Germany, Sweden and Berlin, describing it as absolutely unjustified.

In turn, the Swedish Foreign Minister, Anne Linde, said that his country expelled an employee at the Moscow embassy in Stockholm, said, This is a clear response to the unacceptable decision to expel a Swedish diplomat who was only carrying out his duties.

The Polish Foreign Ministry also stated that it had taken a decision, within the framework of the principle of reciprocity and in coordination with Germany and Sweden, to declare an employee of the Russian Consulate General in Poznan as persona non grata.

She indicated that this procedure comes "in response to the expulsion of a Polish diplomat without any respectable reason" by the Russian side.

On February 5, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it had summoned the ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden, the Chargé d'Affairs of the Republic of Poland and the representative of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, where it informed them of its protest against the registered participation of employees of the Swedish and Polish Consulates General in St. Petersburg and the German Embassy in Moscow in the illegal demonstrations on the day of January 23, 2021 in reference to the protests that broke out after the arrest of the Russian dissident, Alexei Navalny.

The Russian Foreign Ministry added that the diplomats participating in the illegal demonstrations were declared persona non grata in accordance with the Vienna Agreement for Diplomatic Relations signed on April 18, 1961, adding that they were instructed to leave the Russian Federation as soon as possible.