BERLIN, February 5. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechayev was summoned to the German foreign ministry following Russia’s decision to expel a German diplomat for participation in unauthorized rallies in Russia, a source in the German foreign ministry told TASS on Friday.
"State Secretary [Miguel] Berger asked the Russian ambassador to come to the foreign ministry for an urgent conversation and explained Germany’s position to him very clearly," the source said.
The Russian foreign ministry said earlier on Friday two diplomats from the Swedish and Polish consulates general in St. Petersburg and a diplomat from the German embassy in Moscow had been declared personae non grata in Russia because of their participation in the January 23 unauthorized protests in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Representatives from the Swedish, Polish, and German embassies were summoned to the Russian foreign ministry, which made a protest to them.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned earlier Moscow would respond to each case of meddling with Russia’s domestic affairs on the part of foreign diplomats concerning the situation around opposition blogger Alexey Navalny.