MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Swedish Charge d’Affaires in Russia Tobias Lorentzson to express protest over the lack of reaction from Stockholm to the illegal actions against the Russian diplomatic mission in that country, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
"On January 12, Sweden’s Charge d’Affaires Lorentzson was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, which expressed resolute protest over the lack of adequate reaction from the Swedish authorities to the illegal actions of Swedish national Karnyushin against the Russian embassy and trade mission in Sweden," she said.
"Russia’s embassy in Stockholm has repeatedly demanded the Swedish Foreign Ministry ensure better physical safety of Russian diplomatic facilities," she said. "But no concrete steps have been taken until now."
According to Zakharova, during the meeting with Lorentzson Russian diplomats noted that Karnyushin’s provocative actions are becoming more blatant and aggressive posing direct threat to the lives and health of Russian diplomats and their families. Thus, driving his car on January 6, he broke through the gate at the embassy’s parking lot and then rammed the gate at the trade mission’s car shed. On January 8, he used his car to damage the main gate of the trade mission’s administrative building. On January 10, he trespassed into the embassy’s territory. On the same day, he damaged video surveillance equipment on the territory of the Russian trade mission. Swedish police detained Karnyushin following each of the incidents to release him in several hours.
"It was stressed that Karnyushin’s provocative actions are becoming more and more blatant and aggressive posing direct threat to the lives and health Russian diplomats and their families," Zakharova noted. "The Swedish side was requested to take urgent measures to ensure protection of Russian diplomatic missions from intrusion and damage, to prevent disturbances and impairment of dignity in conformity with Sweden’s liabilities under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations."