NATO accused them of spying.. Moscow pledges to respond to NATO's expulsion of its diplomats

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would respond to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expulsion of 8 of its diplomats accredited to the alliance, while NATO attributed the decision to expel Russian diplomats to the growing "malicious" activities of Moscow, saying that the expelled were intelligence officers.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said today, Thursday, that it will respond to the expulsion of its diplomats from its mission to NATO, adding that the decision to withdraw the accreditation of the Russian diplomatic mission’s staff to the alliance “surprised us, but it was expected,” and Moscow said that NATO did not provide it with any official data on the reasons for the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Brussels, where NATO is based.

On Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko accused the alliance of practicing duplicity.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that NATO's decision "totally undermines hopes for a return to normal relations and the resumption of dialogue with the bloc." The Russian official added that there was a "contradiction in the statements of NATO officials between their desire to normalize relations with Russia and what they are doing."

Not the same

And the Interfax news agency had quoted Leonid Slutsky, head of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian parliament, as saying that his country would respond, but not necessarily in kind.

Slutsky added that the position of Russia's envoy to the European Union is currently vacant, and that NATO's move will harm the dialogue between Moscow and the West, stressing that "the West as a whole continues the policy of diplomatic confrontation with Russia."

Earlier today, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference that the expulsion of 8 Russian diplomats accredited to the alliance is not related to a specific event, but is related to the alliance remaining vigil towards Moscow's "malicious" activities.

Stoltenberg explained that the activities of the eight Russian diplomats were incompatible with the mission assigned to them, and on Wednesday NATO withdrew their credentials on suspicion of espionage, saying that they were "unauthorized intelligence officers."

With this decision, the number of members of the Russian mission to NATO was reduced to 10, and the decision to reduce the number of Russian mission personnel by half will enter into force at the end of this month, and it appears that the 30 member states of the alliance have agreed to it.

previous decision

And the number of the Russian mission was reduced when 7 of them were expelled after the ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in Britain, and the credentials of 3 other Russian diplomats were rejected.

The West's relations with Russia remain tense over a range of issues, including the eastern Ukraine crisis, the annexation of Crimea, and alleged Russian interference in the US elections, as well as Russia's accusation of poisoning the double agent Skripal and his daughter, while Moscow accuses NATO of expanding its military infrastructure near its borders.