The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that the German side, despite repeated assurances not to publicize the upcoming expulsion of employees of Russian foreign institutions, nevertheless finally informed the press about it. As the Russian Foreign Ministry specifies, the media, regularly used by the Federal Republic of Germany to organize “controlled leaks” and “stuffing” of disinformation, have been warned.
Moscow responded symmetrically to the expulsion of diplomats. “A decision was made to ‘reflect’ the expulsion of German diplomats from Russia, as well as to significantly limit the maximum number of employees of German diplomatic missions in our country,” the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry says. This, in particular, was notified to the German ambassador to Russia, Geza Andreas von Geyr, on April 5. Germany took note of the reaction of the Russian side.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in an interview with the Zvezda television channel, explained that more than 20 German diplomats will leave the territory of the Russian Federation. The German publication Bild claims that 34 employees of German diplomatic missions will leave Russia – this represents around a third of the total staff of German diplomatic missions in Russia.
After the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the United States and EU countries started a diplomatic war against Russia. Meanwhile, nearly 600 Russian diplomats in total have been declared persona non grata.
Although, as is customary in such cases, the German authorities have qualified the conduct of diplomatic activities as incompatible with their status as a formal pretext for expulsion, in fact the mutual reduction of diplomatic missions reflects the rupture relations with Russia initiated by Western countries in many areas. This, in particular, was mentioned by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when he spoke about the intention of our country to redirect foreign policy activity to other areas.
It makes no sense for Russia to maintain a significant presence in Western countries that cut ties with it
“It makes no sense and no desire to maintain the same presence in Western countries. Our people work in conditions that can hardly be called humane. They are created constant problems, threats of physical attacks. economic cooperation,” said the head of Russian diplomacy. ministry said earlier.
According to Lavrov, in the current conditions, it is necessary to strengthen diplomatic activity in other areas, especially in the CIS countries, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Therefore, the Russian Foreign Ministry is carrying out “a geographical reorientation of activities both abroad and at the central office”.
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