The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of dozens of European diplomats, in response to a similar measure taken by those countries against Russian diplomats.
The ministry announced that it had decided to expel diplomats from France, Italy and Spain, and that it had informed ambassadors of its decision today.
And it said in a statement that it "summoned the French ambassador, Pierre Levy, to inform him of retaliatory measures, in response to Paris' expulsion of a number of Russian diplomats earlier."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the expulsion of 34 French diplomats came in response to a similar measure from Paris, and Paris "strongly" condemned Moscow's expulsion of its diplomats, saying that the decision was not based on "any legitimate basis."
France expelled about 30 Russian diplomats in Paris at the beginning of last April, claiming that their practices "contradict the security interests of France." Later, 6 other Russian diplomats were declared persona non grata.
In the same context, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it would expel 24 Italian diplomats from Moscow, which the Italian Prime Minister condemned as a hostile act and stressed the need not to close diplomatic channels with Moscow.
Moscow also expelled 27 Spanish diplomats, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said that they should leave the country within a week, and the Spanish Foreign Minister announced last April that his country would expel 25 Russian diplomats and employees of the Russian Embassy from Madrid, because they “represent a threat to the interests and security of our country.” ".
It is noteworthy that the policy of expelling diplomats between Russia, Western countries and the United States is active and increases with each dispute between Moscow and the West.
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of two representatives of the Finnish diplomatic mission in Moscow.
In a statement, the ministry said it had expelled two diplomats from the Finnish embassy in Moscow "in response to a similar decision by Helsinki to expel two of our diplomats."
Since the Russian war on Ukraine last February, several European countries have expelled Russian diplomats in support of Ukraine and put pressure on Russia, which prompted Moscow to respond to these steps on the principle of reciprocity, and the Kremlin had denounced the European "narrowness of vision", following the expulsion of countries in Europe. More than 120 Russian diplomats against the backdrop of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
According to a statistics conducted by the French press agency, about 260 Russian diplomats have been expelled from various European Union countries since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine on February 24 until the beginning of last April.