MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/. Expulsion of Russian diplomats from EU member-states, the US, Canada, Australia, and some other countries signals crude violation of international law norms and creates a dangerous precedent of collective punishment of a country without proving its guilt, Russia's permanent representative at the Organization for Security and Coopetation in Europe, Alexander Lukashevich told Rossiya'24 channel on Wednesday.

"As for the expulsion of our diplomatic staffs, we'll no doubt raise the issue before the OSCE because this is a crude violation," Lukashevich said. "For the first time ever, a precedent of arises in international relations of a collective act of punishment of a country without proving any guilt on its part. This is a large-scale provocation."

"This clearly stands at variance with international law norms and, in the first place, with the 1961 Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the 1963 Convention on Consular Relations and all the subsequent documents," he said.