As of: 04/25/2022 4:28 p.m
Russia has declared 40 German diplomats “undesirable persons” and thus ordered their expulsion. It is a retaliatory measure for a similar measure by Germany.
Russia expels 40 German diplomats. The German ambassador in Moscow had been summoned and informed that “40 employees of Germany’s diplomatic missions in Russia had been declared undesirable persons,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
It is a retaliatory measure for a similar measure by Germany. A letter of protest against Berlin’s unfriendly policies had been handed to the German ambassador in Moscow.
Expulsion of Russian diplomats
The reaction had been expected from the German side for weeks. At the beginning of the month, the federal government had already declared 40 employees of the Russian embassy in Berlin “undesirable persons” and expelled them from the country.
According to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, the German Ambassador Géza Andreas von Geyr was also handed a firm protest against the statements made by Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Baerbock had said about the expulsion of the members of the Russian embassy that they were people “who here in Germany worked against our freedom, against the cohesion of our society”. The work of the Russian diplomats concerned “is a threat to those who seek protection from us”. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, then announced:
We will also respond to this malicious act by the German political machine.
Response to war crimes in Bucha
Germany had expelled the Russian diplomats after hundreds of bodies were found in Ukraine after Russian troops withdrew from the Kiev suburb of Bucha. Regarding the atrocities, Baerbock said that these images “testify to the unbelievable brutality of the Russian leadership” and to those who followed their propaganda, “of a will to annihilate that transcends all borders”.
Numerous European countries have already expelled dozens of Russian diplomats in connection with the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Relatives also have to leave the country
According to information from the German Press Agency, the number of diplomats who have now been expelled corresponds to about a third of the German diplomatic corps in Russia. In Russia, far more than 100 Germans are likely to be affected by the ministry’s decision, because the diplomats’ relatives will also have to leave the country. It is expected that the services of the German representations, including consulates outside the capital Moscow, will have to be significantly restricted. The German embassy is the largest among the representations of the EU states in Moscow.