Russia expels seven more European diplomats

Russia has expelled seven more envoys from European embassies in Moscow in tit-for-tat moves as the diplomatic fallout from a Czech explosion blamed on Russian spies continues.

Prague blamed Moscow earlier this month for a 2014 explosion at a Czech arms depot that killed two people, and expelled 18 Russian diplomats. That prompted several EU member states also to kick out Russian diplomats in solidarity, and a wave of countermeasures from Moscow.

The EU state expulsions, alongside other reciprocal moves including the decision by the US and Russia to expel 10 of each others’ diplomats following a new raft of sanctions from the White House and the Kremlin, mean almost 150 diplomats from Russia and western countries have been ordered to return home over the past two weeks.

That erosion of diplomatic presence comes amid the worst relations between Moscow and western capitals since the cold war, fuelled in recent weeks by concerns over Russia’s military build-up on the border of Ukraine and the poor health of jailed opposition activist Alexei Navalny.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said three diplomats from Slovakia, two from Lithuania and one each from Estonia and Latvia would have to leave the country within a week. Those expulsions mirror moves by the respective EU countries against Russia’s embassy staff last week, described as measures in solidarity with Prague.

Earlier this month Czech officials said that the explosion at the arms depot in October 2014 was the result of sabotage carried out by Unit 29155 of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, the same elite team accused of the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.

Prague initially expelled 18 Russian diplomats as punishment for the blast. When Moscow responded by expelling 20 Czech diplomats and embassy staff, Prague then said it would expel about 60 more to bring the size of Russia’s mission in Prague and the Czech mission in Moscow to parity.

Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were “pursuing an openly hostile course towards our country, in this instance hiding behind pseudo-solidarity with the Czech Republic and its indiscriminate actions towards Russia”.

Slovakia, the ministry said, had “shown false solidarity with the Czech Republic in its provocative anti-Russian campaign”.

In response, Lithuania’s foreign ministry said its expelled diplomats “never carried out activities incompatible with their diplomatic status”.

“[Lithuania] also hopes that Russia will change its aggressive foreign policy, stop accusing other states of escalating the situation, and, finally, hear the messages sent to it by the western community,” it added.

Russia has denied any role in both the Czech explosion and the attack on Skripal.