The Russian Foreign Ministry has officially expelled four diplomats from Austria in retaliation for Vienna’s recent move to send four Russian envoys away.
On 16 February, the ministry summoned Austria’s Ambassador to Moscow Werner Almhofer. He was handed a note of protest “over the provocative declaration of four Russian foreign diplomatic mission staffers as personae non gratae in Austria by Vienna”.
“This hostile and absolutely groundless step deals a serious blow to the bilateral relations, which are already in crisis due to the actions taken by the Austrian side, and Vienna’s international reputation who earlier positioned itself as an impartial and neutral state as well as an international diplomacy forum,” the ministry noted.
The Russian response dictates that four staffers of the Austrian embassy should leave Russia before 23 February.
Austria expelled four Russian diplomats from the country on 2 February.
Two Russian diplomats “committed acts incompatible with their diplomatic status”, the national Foreign Ministry revealed. The two other diplomats working at the Russian mission to the UN “engaged in acts incompatible with the agreement on the headquarters”, the ministry added.
