MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. The decision to reduce the size of the Russian diplomatic mission to the European Union is driven by the desire of the European leadership to influence the negotiation process on Ukraine, Dmitry Belik, a member of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs told TASS.
Earlier, European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced that the European Union decided to reduce Russia’s mission to the EU to 40 people and that the top EU diplomats have failed to agree on the 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions by February 24. Russia’s permanent mission to the EU expressed confidence that the reduction of the diplomatic mission is linked to the inability to adopt the 20th sanctions package and agree on a loan for Ukraine in the amount of €90 billion ahead of a trip to Kiev.
"The host states, of course, have the right to determine the number of diplomats on their territory. This procedure is enshrined in international law and is consistent with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. However, the current decision of the EU is not the result of diplomacy, but a consequence of hasty steps dictated by the desire to destabilize the situation precisely when peace negotiations are underway," Belik said.
He expressed confidence that such actions by the EU are aimed at weakening the positions of the Russian diplomatic mission, hindering its activities, creating artificial obstacles in the work of diplomats, and damaging the overall process of effective interstate interaction.
"Instead of trying to resolve their own problems, the leadership of European diplomacy prefers to follow the path of provocations and aggressive measures and, as usual, seeks a way out in anti-Russian steps," he emphasized.