Russia declared a Slovak military diplomat persona non grata on December 13 in response to the expulsion of a Russian diplomat, a representative of the military attache at the Russian embassy in Bratislava, from Slovakia on November 22.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2018) Russia declared a Slovak military diplomat persona non grata on December 13 in response to the expulsion of a Russian diplomat, a representative of the military attache at the Russian embassy in Bratislava, from Slovakia on November 22.On August 6, the Russian Foreign Minister summoned Greek ambassador to Moscow, Andreas Friganas, and handed him a diplomatic note, informing him about tit-for-tat measures taken by the Russian side in response to Athens' unfriendly actions against Russian diplomats and citizens in July. The Russian side expelled a trade representative of the Greek Embassy in Moscow, as well as a person responsible for the embassy's communications service. In addition, Moscow banned the entry of George Sakellariou, director of Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias Political Office, into Russia.
In March, Russia "mirrored" the unfriendly action of the West, which declared several Russian diplomats persona non grata. This was set off by the incident in the UK city of Salisbury, where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned on March 4. The United Kingdom accused Russia of being behind the attack with what UK experts claim was the A234 nerve agent. Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident and pointed out that London did not provide any sufficient evidence to substantiate its claims.
In response, London expelled 23 Russian diplomats. Over 25 countries have supported London, including the United States, Canada, Norway, Australia, Moldova, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Ukraine. On March 17, in response to London's actions, Russian Foreign Ministry declared 23 diplomatic personnel from the UK embassy in Moscow persona non grata and demanded they leave Russia within a week.
On March 29, Russia announced that it withdraws consent to the work of the US Consulate General in St. Petersburg and expelled 60 US diplomats.
On March 30, Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of diplomats and employees of diplomatic missions from Australia, Albania, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Finland, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden and Estonia.
On April 1, Russia announced that it would additionally expel 50 UK diplomats from Moscow, so that the number of UK diplomats in Russia and Russian ones in the United Kingdom was equal.
On April 2, Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of one employee of the diplomatic mission of Montenegro and the expulsion of the Hungarian and Belgian diplomats on April 4. On April 13, Moscow declared an employee from the Georgian Interest Section at the Swiss Embassy in Moscow persona non grata.
On November 28, media reported that two diplomats of the Swedish embassy in Russia could be expelled from the country in response to recent similar actions taken by the Swedish side. The Embassy of Sweden in Russia did not comment on the possible expulsion of its employees. The Russian Embassy in Sweden refrained from commenting.
On July 28, in response to the closure of diplomatic missions in the United States and the expulsion of Russian diplomats, Moscow suggested that Washington should cut diplomatic staff by 755 people down to 455, which is equivalent to the number of staff working in Russian diplomatic missions in the United States.
On May 31, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of five Moldovan diplomats in response to similar actions taken by Chisinau. They were ordered to leave the country within three days. On May 29, the Russian embassy in Moldova received a note stating that five employees of the Moldovan diplomatic mission in Moscow were declared persona non grata.
On May 31, Russia notified Estonia of a reciprocal expulsion of two diplomats. The Estonian Consul-General in St. Petersburg and the head of the Pskov Office of the Consulate General were to leave Russia within five days.
On May 26, the Estonian authorities ordered Russian Consul-General in Narva Dmitry Kazennov and the Consul Andrey Surgaev to leave the country. The reasons for this decision were not given. On May 31, Russia notified Estonia expulsion of two Estonian diplomats in response to Tallinn's actions.
On July 9, the Russian Foreign Ministry declared two US diplomats persona non grata and announced their expulsion from Moscow. Earlier, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said that on June 17 the United States had expelled two Russian diplomats in response to an incident that occurred with a US diplomat in Moscow.
The incident was reported by The Washington Post newspaper, which wrote that on June 6 one of the US officials had been allegedly attacked in Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that diplomat was working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and it was him who attacked a Russian policeman guarding the embassy. This was confirmed by CCTV footage.
On September 1, Ukrainian diplomat Igor Fediekevich, who worked at the Ukrainian Consulate in St. Petersburg, was expelled from Russia. This was done in response to the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from Odessa.
On July 13, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced that the acting Consul-General in Odessa had been declared persona non grata and reported that the Russian diplomat had already left the country.
On November 17, it was reported that Russia expelled several Polish diplomats for activities incompatible with their status in response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Poland. Three military attaches and an employee of the political department of the Polish diplomatic mission left Russia.
On November 15, media reported that an employee of the political department of the German Embassy in Moscow was withdrawn from Russia at the request of Russian authorities. This happened after an employee of the Russian Consulate-General in Bonn, who had been under German intelligence service's surveillance for several months, had been expelled from Germany.
On April 22, the leadership of the Canadian diplomatic mission in Moscow was informed that its First Secretary Margarita Atanasov was to be expelled from Russia within two weeks. This step was taken by Russia in response to the expulsion of a Russian assistant military attache from Ottawa.
On May 14, CIA agent Ryan Christopher Fogle, while trying to recruit an employee of one of the Russian special services, was arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Fogle had been working undercover as the third secretary of the political department in the US Embassy in Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry declared him persona non grata and demanded his early departure to his home country.
On April 17, it became known that the Estonian Consul-General in St. Petersburg Franek Persidski was declared persona non grata in Russia. According to Estonian media, the reason to declare Persidski persona non grata was an incident when the Estonian side refused to grant visas to Russian citizens who were going to Tallinn to participate in the Baltic Dialogue 2013 round table.
On May 12, Israeli military attache Vadim Leiderman was detained in Moscow on suspicion of espionage and left Russia within 48 hours. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Vadim Leiderman was caught in the act of receiving classified information from a Russian citizen. In connection with the activities incompatible with his diplomatic status, the Russian Foreign Ministry voiced its protest and announced Leiderman persona non grata.
In late December, according to Spanish media, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that Ignacio Cartagena, the political counselor at the Spanish embassy in Moscow, and First Secretary of the embassy Borja Cortes-Breton to leave the country. This happened after Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez Garcia-Herrera agreed with the demand made by Director of the National Intelligence Center Felix Sanz Roldan to expel two Russian diplomats from the country in late November.
In mid-December, both Russia and the United Kingdom mutually expelled diplomats. One embassy employee from Moscow and London each left their diplomatic missions.
On December 10, the United Kingdom requested from the Russian embassy in London to withdraw one of their employees from the United Kingdom. Former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a written statement for members of the UK parliament that this was done "in response to clear evidence of activities by the Russian intelligence services against UK interests."
On December 16, Russia requested that the UK embassy recall one of its employees from Moscow in response. London rejected any grounds for such actions, but satisfied the request.
On August 16, Russian FSB reported that the first secretary of the political department at the Romanian embassy in Moscow, Gabriel Grecu, was detained for spying. According to the FSB, Grecu was working at the Romanian embassy in Moscow "under the cover of his position as a first secretary of the political department." The diplomat was declared persona non grata and was ordered to leave Russia within two days. The Romanian side received a "strong protest" in connection with his activities. After the incident, the Romanian authorities expelled one Russian diplomat.
