By Enyichukwu Enemanna
In a retaliatory move, Russia says it has expelled at least 20 German diplomats from the country, after Berlin said some Russian diplomats had also left Germany.
A Russian Foreign Ministry official says the expulsions were “reciprocal”, and that it would significantly reduce the maximum number of staff at German diplomatic missions.
RIA Novosti news agency on Saturday quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova of confirming the expulsions.
Berlin and Moscow had been in contact about their respective representations in the last few weeks with the aim of reducing Russia’s intelligence presence in Germany, a German Foreign Ministry official stated.
“Today’s departure of Russian embassy staff is related to this,” said the official.
It is not clear the number of Russian diplomats had left Germany.
Commenting on Germany’s expulsions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “We strongly condemn these actions by Berlin, which continues to demonstratively destroy the entire array of Russian-German relations.”
It said Germany’s ambassador had been told of the moves to send the diplomats out of Russia during a meeting on April 5.
Relations between Russia and Germany, which used to be the biggest buyer of Russian oil and gas, have fallen apart since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, a development that led the West to respond with sanctions and with weapons for Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly called the invasion a “special military operation”.
