MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. The absence of Western ambassadors at the inauguration ceremony of Russia President Vladimir Putin calls into question the very expediency of their staying in Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"I think it is worth asking those countries and peoples of those countries whose ambassadors did not come [to Putin’s inauguration ceremony]: then what are they doing here at all if they ignore their basic duty of attending official events, developing ties, communicating?" she said.

She also asked a rhetorical question about what these countries’ new ambassadors would do when they have to hand over their credentials to the president. "Will they refuse to come to the Kremlin again, or what? Or maybe, they would invent some new ceremonies. I don’t know. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations has not been cancelled or revised. Moreover, II don’t think that the world community will be able to invent anything better in the current environment," she said. "I wonder what they are going to do to rotate their personnel? Well, these questions should be addressed to their government by their own journalists, their society - both civil society and society in general. What do they want to achieve in principle?"

On May 7, Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his fifth term. All heads of diplomatic missions to Moscow, including from unfriendly countries, were invited to the inauguration ceremony.