Russia expels 5 Polish envoys in tit-for-tat move
MOSCOW: Russia expelled five Polish diplomats on Friday in retaliation to Polish authorities expelling three Russian Embassy workers last week.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Polish ambassador to inform him that the five diplomats must leave the country by May 15.
The Foreign Ministry berated Warsaw for its “deliberate course” to “destroy” relations with Russia. It denounced Polish authorities removing monuments to Soviet soldiers and accused them of seeking to undermine Russian energy projects and unleashing a “large-scale anti-russian information campaign.” Poland’s Foreign Ministry on Friday called Russian move as “yet another example of aggressive policies” and “a deliberate gesture meant to inflame relations with the neighbors and the entire international community.” The ministry said Warsaw reserved the right to “an appropriate response.” Russia’s move to expel Polish diplomats came ater Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ordered the expulsion of a total of four Russian diplomats on Friday.
The three Baltic countries said they acted to support the Czech Republic, which engaged in a tense diplomatic showdown with Russia involving the expulsions of scores of diplomats.
Lithuania said it was sending two diplomats home and Latvia and Estonia one each.
“The EU should have less undercover Russian spies,” Lithuanian foreign affairs minister Gabrielius
Landsbergis told reporters. In addition, Bulgaria and Poland have expelled two and three Russians respectively, prompting Moscow to show the door to two Bulgarians and five Poles.
Daniel Milo, senior adviser at Bratislava-based policy institute GLOBSEC, said the combined moves suggested greater self-confidence on the part of the Central Europeans and could have implications for areas such an energy cooperation, where the region has until now been heavily dependent on Russia.
“Russia perhaps needs to see this is not an isolated act of a small country of 10 million people (the Czech Republic) but that there is true sense of solidarity across the EU or Nato,” he said.
“If that happens, it might serve as a strong deterrent to any future atempts to carry out such (spying) activities, as they did with the feeling of impunity previously.” The spy rows have come at a time of acute tensions between Russia and the West, including over Ukraine and over the fate of opposition Russian leader Alexei Navalny, who on Friday announced he was ending a three-week hunger strike in jail.
“Through the efforts of the Polish authorities in recent years, contacts with Russia have been virtually frozen, a shameful war with Soviet monuments has been launched, atempts are being made to torpedo Russian energy projects, a large-scale antiRussian information campaign is being carried out.”