Since the assassination attempt on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in English Salisbury in 2018, when they were poisoned with the Soviet neurotoxin novitjok, a total of 600 diplomats have been sent home to the West and Russia.
The same number on both sides, says Fredrik Westerlund at the Swedish Defense Research Agency.
On Monday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia will close what remains of Russia's NATO delegation in Brussels.
At the same time, Russia will withdraw accreditation for NATO staff in Moscow, according to Lavrov.
- This should be seen as another sign of the increasingly close relationship between Russia and the West, says Fredrik Westerlund.
Fredrik Westerlund, security policy analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, FOI Photo: Anders Wiklund / TT
NATO expelled Russians
The background is that in early October NATO decided to send home eight Russian diplomats from the Russian representation at NATO headquarters in Brussels because they are said to have conducted intelligence activities with undeclared intelligence officers, according to NATO.
- Then NATO also withdrew two more posts.
This means that from November 1 this year, the Russian representation would have been halved from 20 to 10 diplomats.
- Now Russia chooses to close the entire representation instead.
They choose not only to respond with equal for equal and only reduce NATO's representation in Moscow, but Russia chooses to close the whole to further highlight.
Military officials investigated the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, UK.
Photo: AP / Frank Augstein 4 March 2018
Russian view of NATO
It is also about Russia's views on organizations such as NATO and the EU, which consist of several countries, says Westerlund.
- Moscow has never felt secure in its relationship with NATO as an organization, because there Russia has one vote and NATO has 27 votes.
The same applies to the EU.
It is preferable to have bilateral relations with individual countries, rather than organizations where one quickly ends up in a numerical disadvantage.
It is unclear on Monday how many of NATO's staff in Moscow will now lose their accreditations.
But there are believed to be as many as Russia's NATO delegation in Brussels - about 20 people.
- Russia usually does not allow you to have more representatives than you have sent out yourself.
Is there a possibility for negotiation?
- There is room to ward off the whole thing if you would like, but I do not see that there is so much good will on either side.
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.
Read more about browser support
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference in Moscow.
Photo: Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP 18 October 2021