Germany and France want to expel numerous Russian diplomats. Specifically, Berlin declared 40 Russian diplomats “undesirable persons”. According to the Russian embassy in Berlin, after Germany’s step, relations between the two countries will “deteriorate”. According to information from French ministry circles, 35 Russian diplomats are to leave the country. Their activities are said to contradict France’s security interests.
Declared “undesirable persons”.
“The unjustified reduction in the diplomatic staff of the Russian missions in Germany will narrow the space for maintaining dialogue between our countries, which will lead to a further deterioration in German-Russian relations,” the Russian mission in Germany wrote on Telegram. According to information from Berlin, the Russian diplomats who have been declared “undesirable persons” in the Federal Republic all work for their country’s secret services.
“We selected 40 people who we assign to the Russian intelligence services,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday evening. “We have decided that these 40 people must now leave our country as soon as possible,” she added. This is “another consistent step against the Russian leadership, which is waging a horribly brutal war against the Ukrainian civilian population”.
Protection against Russian espionage
According to Faeser, the German security authorities keep a close eye on the intelligence tools used by the Russian government. The aim is to protect Germany against Russian espionage, attempts to exert influence, lies and war propaganda. “We will not allow this criminal war of aggression to also be waged as an information war in Germany,” said the SPD politician.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had previously announced that the decision had been made to “declare a significant number of members of the Russian embassy to be undesirable persons who have worked here in Germany every day against our freedom and against the cohesion of our society”. If diplomats are declared undesirable persons, this is tantamount to expulsion.
In the previous week, several partner countries had already expelled Russian diplomats – including the USA, the Netherlands, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Belgium. The expulsions were all related to the Russian war in Ukraine.