Russia expelled diplomats
from 23 countries Friday in a wave of retaliatory measures against the West in
a spy row, the biggest wave of tit-for-tat expulsions in recent memory.
The Russian foreign
ministry said in a statement that it had summoned the heads of missions from 23
countries earlier to tell them that some of their diplomats had to leave the
country.
Germany and Poland each
said that Russia was expelling four of their diplomats. Among the other
countries that had similarly been told to pull their envoys were the
Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Finland and Lithuania.
The moves are in
retaliation to a coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats by Britain and its allies
over a nerve agent attack against former double agent Sergei Skripal and his
daughter Yulia Skripal in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.
“This is certainly not a
surprise,” Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said through a spokeswoman, referring
to Moscow’s expulsion of two of the country’s diplomats.
Blok called upon Russia to
cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the attack by the Organisation
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The Russian foreign
ministry also gave Britain a month to cut its number of diplomatic staff in
Russia to the same number as Russia has in Britain.
In Britain, the government
remained adamant that Russia was in the wrong.
“This doesn’t change the
facts of the matter: the attempted assassination of two people on British soil,
for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State
was culpable,” a spokeswoman for the Britain’s Foreign Office said, calling the
latest developments “regrettable.”
“Russia is in flagrant
breach of international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention and actions by
countries around the world have demonstrated the depth of international
concern,” she said.
On Thursday, Moscow had
announced that it would expel 60 US diplomats and close the US consulate in
Saint Petersburg after the expulsion of its own diplomats and the closure of
one of its US consulates.
In all, more than 150
Russian diplomats have been ordered out of the US, EU members, NATO countries
and other nations which are accusing Russia of being involved in the Skripal
poisoning.
The diplomats had earlier
been seen arriving at the Russian foreign ministry in flagged official cars.
The ministry had said in a
terse statement that they would be “handed protest notes and told about the
Russian side’s retaliatory measures.”
Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov has said Moscow would respond with “tit-for-tat” measures, but they
might “not only” be symmetrical.
The Kremlin insisted on
Friday that Russia that had not started the diplomatic war with the West.
“Russia did not unleash any
diplomatic war,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Russia never initiated any exchange of sanctions.”
–‘Get out of here’–
On the streets in Saint
Petersburg, passersby said they welcomed the decision to shut down the US
consulate in the city.
“This is great news,” said
Viktor Glushko, 60.
“It is about time.
Relations will not get worse because they were never good and we will get by
without them.”
Another man shouted: “Get
out of here!” as he passed by the US consulate where staff were seen loading
plastic sacks into vehicles Friday.
In Washington, the State
Department said Thursday there was no justification for the Russian move and
that the United States “reserves the right to respond”.
“It’s clear from the list
provided to us that the Russian Federation is not interested in a dialogue on
issues that matter to our two countries,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said of
the expelled diplomats.
White House Press Secretary
Sarah Sanders said Russia’s expulsion of US diplomats marks a “further
deterioration” in relations.
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