Pro Navalny protests.
Russia expels German, Polish and Swedish diplomats
Navalny.
Protests in Russia against the sentence: over 1400 arrests
Moscow, Navalny sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Condemnation from the US and the EU
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08 February 2021 Germany, Sweden and Poland have decided to respond to Moscow and expel Russian diplomats after the similar decision in recent days by the Kremlin to expel representatives of the three European countries for taking part in the protests to demand the opponent's release Kremlin Alexei Navalny
Berlin declares Russian diplomat "persona non grata"
Germany today declared "a staff member of the Russian Embassy in Berlin persona non grata", in response to the similar decision taken by Moscow last week against EU diplomats. "With this step - reads the statement from the Foreign Ministry German - the federal government responds to the decision of the Russian Federation of Friday 5 February 2021. Russia has expelled several EU diplomats, including a staff member of the German embassy in Moscow.
The note states that "that decision was in no way justified" because the "German diplomat in question had merely exercised his function, under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, of observing developments in Russia through legal means".
Sweden, foreign minister: "a person from the Russian embassy received a request to leave Sweden"
After Germany, Sweden also declared a Russian diplomat 'persona non grata', in response to the decision taken by Moscow last week of expel various European diplomats from the country.
"We informed the Russian ambassador that a person from the Russian embassy has received a request to leave Sweden," Swedish foreign minister Ann Linde said on Twitter.
"This is a clear response - he added - to the unacceptable decision to expel a Swedish diplomat who was doing nothing but fulfilling his duties".