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Berlin decides to expel Russian diplomats en masse, Moscow to mirror that decision — MFA

The diplomats promised to give a mirror response to Berlin's decision

© Sergei Karpukhin/TASS

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. The German authorities have decided to massively expel Russian diplomats, thus Berlin is pursuing a course to destroy the entire range of Russia-Germany relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS on Saturday.

"The authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany have decided on another mass expulsion of members of the Russian diplomatic missions in Germany. We strongly condemn these actions of Berlin, which continues to demonstratively destroy the entire range of Russia-Germany relations, including in their diplomatic dimension," the ministry pointed out.

The diplomats promised to give a mirror response to Berlin's decision.

"As a response to Berlin's hostile actions, the Russian side has decided to mirror the decision and expel German diplomats from Russia, as well as to significantly limit the maximum number of employees of German diplomatic missions in our country. On April 5, 2023, the Russian Foreign Ministry officially notified German Ambassador to Russia Geza Andreas von Geyr of this decision," the diplomats said.

They also pointed out that Berlin, in violation of its assurances, has put the media on notice of another mass expulsion of Russian diplomatic staff.

"It is indicative that the German side, despite its repeated assurances of unwillingness to make the story public, violated them by making representatives of the media regularly used to organize 'controlled leaks and information' issues aware of its plot," the ministry said.

Situation with expulsion of Russian diplomats

On March 25, the Focus media outlet said, citing sources in the foreign ministry, that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock planned to declare more than 30 accredited Russian diplomats personae non gratae. According to the Focus, German security agencies claim that these diplomats use their diplomatic status to illegally obtain political, economic, military, and scientific information for subsequent use in acts of sabotage and dissemination of disinformation.

Commenting on these reports, a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia would give a tough response to such steps.

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