The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced this Saturday the expulsion of "more than twenty" German diplomats as a "retaliatory measure" for a similar measure previously taken by the Bavarian government after communicating the freight of "a flight" from Berlin with presence of "members of the embassy" among the passengers.
"We strongly condemn these actions by Berlin, which continues to destroy (...) the entire spectrum of Russian-German relations, including its diplomatic dimension," was the argument offered by Russian diplomatic spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Zvezda television.
According to Russian diplomacy, "despite their repeated statements that they did not wish to make this situation public, the German side has violated its own directive by bringing up to date representatives of the media, regularly used to prepare 'controlled leaks' and disinformation campaigns. ".
Asked by the AFP agency, the German Foreign Ministry admits "having read the statements" of Ms. Zakharova and added that "the federal government and the Russian side have been in contact in recent weeks" about the "reduction of the presence of the Russian intelligence services in Germany".
German security organs claim that Russian diplomats use their diplomatic immunity to illegally recruit German informants from politics, business, science and the military for agent, sabotage or disinformation operations.
Moscow, for its part, warned that it will react to "Berlin's hostile actions" in a symmetrical way and will also considerably limit the number of accredited German diplomats, a decision of which it informed the German ambassador to Russia, Géza Andreas, on April 5. von Geyr.
In fact, the 20 expulsions could be almost double since, according to the Bild newspaper, the figure could rise to 34 of the 90 employees of the diplomatic legation in Russia.
The fact is that Germany, a close economic partner of Russia before the military offensive in Ukraine, has since moved away from Moscow as evidenced by the financial and military support offered to Kiev in the armed conflict.
It was at the end of January that Berlin finally agreed to send a substantial number of its Leopard tanks to the Ukrainian government. Something that was a turning point in Western military support.
