Relations between the USA and Russia are heading for a new low: The Foreign Office in Moscow asked two US diplomats to leave the country because of “illegal activities”. They are said to have been contacts of an arrested Russian.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has declared two US diplomats persona non grata and ordered them to leave the country within seven days. The move was justified by allegations that Jeffrey Sillin, the first secretary of the US Embassy in Russia, and David Bernstein, the second secretary, were involved in “illegal activities.” Russia accuses them of interfering in internal affairs.
The two were “liaisons” for Robert Schonow, a former Russian employee of the US consulate in Vladivostok who was arrested in May on espionage charges, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement. Sillin and Bernstein recruited Schonow to obtain secret information that would harm Russia’s security.
Note of protest to Ambassador Tracy
US Ambassador Lynne Tracy was summoned to the Foreign Office in Moscow because of the case. The protest note was handed over to her there.
The ministry said it emphasized “that illegal activities of the US diplomatic mission, including interference in the internal affairs of the host country, are unacceptable and will be resolutely suppressed. The Russian side expects Washington to carry out the right ones “draws conclusions and refrains from taking confrontational steps”. There was initially no response from the US Embassy or the US State Department.
FSB indicted Schonov in August
The Russian authorities accuse the ex-consulate employee Schonow of collecting information about, among other things, the course of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and passing it on to the US embassy. The domestic secret service FSB charged the suspect in August.
He faces up to eight years in prison if convicted of collaborating with foreign powers to the detriment of national security. Washington had dismissed the allegations against Schonow as “baseless.” According to the US State Department, his job was to summarize publicly available Russian media articles.
Exchange of your own agents
The incident is putting a heavy strain on the already extremely tense relationship between Russia and the USA. Moscow has used such arrests in the past to exchange its own agents abroad.
At the beginning of the year, Russian intelligence also arrested US correspondent Evan Gershkovich from the Wall Street Journal and also accused him of espionage. The defendant and the newspaper vehemently reject the allegations. Gershkovich has been in custody since the end of March.
In recent years there have been a number of mutual expulsions of diplomats between Moscow and Washington.