- The Dutch Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of 17 diplomats on Tuesday
- It said that they were operating as 'secretly active' intelligence officers
- Belgium, Czech Republic and Ireland followed suit, with Brussels expelling 21
- Move is the latest in an series tit-for-tat expulsions between Europe and Moscow
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A total of 43 Russian diplomats have today been expelled from four different European countries - Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Pictured: Mainly Russian nationals participate in a peaceful protest outside the Russian embassy to show support for Ukraine on March 5, 2022 in The Hague, The Netherlands
A total of 43 Russian diplomats have today been expelled from four different European countries - Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium and the Czech Republic - in coordinated action taken in the shadow of Moscow's war in Ukraine.
The Dutch Ministry announced the expulsion of 17 diplomats that it said were 'secretly active' as intelligence officers.
Belgium's government followed suit, announcing the expulsion of 21 diplomats on suspicion of spying in what it said was in coordination with the Dutch. The diplomats were given two weeks to leave the country.
One member of the diplomatic staff at Russia's embassy in Prague was then expelled from the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
'(The person) was requested to leave Czechia within 72 hours,' the ministry said on its Twitter account. 'Together with our Allies, we are reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU,' it added.
Ireland also announced that it had requested four senior Russian officials to leave the country on account of their activities not being 'in accordance with international standards of diplomatic behaviour', the Government said.
In total, the four countries expelled 43 diplomats in the latest in a snowballing series of tit-for-tat expulsions of Russian diplomats by Western countries and retaliatory measures by Moscow, which have intensified since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
'Today, the ambassador of Russia was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' and informed of the expulsion, The Netherlands' Hague-based foreign ministry said in a statement.
'The reason is that there is information... showing that the persons concerned, accredited as diplomats, are secretly active as intelligence officers,' it said.
'The cabinet has decided to do this because of the threat to national security posed by this group,' the statement added, saying the intelligence threat against the Netherlands remained high.
The 'current attitude of Russia in a broader sense makes the presence of these intelligence officers undesirable,' the ministry said.
The government said it took the decision in consultation with 'a number of like-minded countries,' citing similar expulsions by the United States, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Montenegro.
Poland last week expelled 45 Russians whom the government identified as intelligence officers using their diplomatic status as cover to operate in the country.
This prompted Moscow to accuse Warsaw of embarking on 'a dangerous escalation'.
One member of the diplomatic staff at Russia's embassy in Prague has been expelled from the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. Pictured: Activists pour red paint on the stairs of the Russian Embassy in Prague on early March 26, 2022
In Ireland, the Russian ambassador was summoned to a meeting at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said: 'This afternoon, the Department of Foreign Affairs summoned the Russian ambassador to Iveagh House to advise him that four senior officials have been asked to leave the state.
'This is because their activities have not been in accordance with international standards of diplomatic behaviour.'
He went on to stress that diplomatic channels between Ireland and Russia would remain open 'in the interest of our citizens'.
'This channel of communication has been important in the context of conveying our strong views on the Russian Federation's war against Ukraine, which we regard as a serious breach of international law,' he added.
Pictured: People placed support messages at the Ukrainian Embassy to the Belgium Kingdom, on March 8, 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. Belgium expelled 21 diplomats on Tuesday
Speaking on Tuesday, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said he was prepared for a similar retaliation from Moscow seen after others took similar measures.
'Experience shows that Russia does not leave these kinds of measures unanswered,' he said. 'We cannot speculate about that, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is prepared for various scenarios that may arise in the near future.'
That was demonstrated earlier Tuesday, when Russia said it expelled a total of 10 diplomats from the three Baltic EU states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in retaliation for those countries expelling Russian diplomats earlier this month.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was cancelling the accreditation of four Lithuanian diplomats, three Latvians and three Estonians and they would be required to leave the country. That corresponds to the number of Russian diplomats each country previously expelled.
On March 18, the three Baltic countries ordered the expulsion of 10 Russian embassy staff members in a coordinated action taken in solidarity with Ukraine.
Moscow called that move 'provocative and entirely baseless' and that it had summoned the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian ambassadors in Moscow for an official protest.
The expulsions announced Tuesday ratcheted up Western blows directed at Russia following its February 24 invasion of Ukraine. Already several rounds of sanctions engineered mainly by the EU and the US have severely sapped Russia's economy.
Pictured: Protesters gather outside the Russian Embassy in south Dublin to mark one month since the invasion of Ukraine. The embassy has become the focal point for Irish anger over the war raged by Vladimir Putin. Picture date: Thursday March 24, 2022
As a result, Russia now considers all EU countries, along with the United States and allies including Japan, Britain and Australia, to be 'hostile' countries.
In the wake of Russia's invasion, the United States in early March kicked out 12 Russian diplomats based in New York it deemed to be 'intelligence operatives'.
Russia retaliated last week by handing the US a list of American diplomats declared 'persona non grata'.
Poland, an EU country neighbouring Ukraine, last week expelled 45 Russian diplomats over alleged espionage, prompting Moscow to accuse Warsaw of embarking on 'a dangerous escalation'.
Russia was left virtually isolated in the United Nations' General Assembly on March 2 when an overwhelming majority of countries - 141 in total - voted to adopt a non-binding resolution demanding a halt to Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Just five countries voted against the resolution: Russia, Syria, North Korea, Belarus and Eritrea. Another 35 abstained, including China.
Two days later, on March 4, the UN Human Rights Council voted to trigger an investigation into violations committed in the war in Ukraine. Thirty-two of the council's 47 members voted in favour, with just Russia and Eritrea voting against.
Two weeks ago, Russia announced it was quitting another international rights forum, the Council of Europe - just before the pan-European body based in Strasbourg said it was kicking Russia out.
In total, the four countries expelled 43 diplomats in the latest in a snowballing series of tit-for-tat expulsions of Russian diplomats by Western countries and retaliatory measures by Moscow, which have intensified since Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Pictured: Putin meets with Presidential Grants Foundation CEO Ilya Chukalin at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 29, 2022
The expulsions came as Russia's defence minister said that 'liberating' the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine is the main goal of Moscow's military operation, underlining a possible shift in strategy announced last week by another Russian military official.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose few public appearances this month raised questions about his health and whereabouts, held a meeting with top military officials on Tuesday and said that 'overall, the main tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed.'
He said that 'the combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces has been significantly reduced, which makes it possible to focus the main attention and main efforts on achieving the main goal - the liberation of Donbas.'
The minister stressed that the Russian military will continue the operation until 'the set goals are achieved.'
Shoigu also offered an assurance that Russia will not send conscripts recruited in the upcoming April draft to Ukraine. Earlier this month, the Russian military admitted that a number of conscripts ended up in Ukraine and were even captured there.
Last week, a senior NATO military officer said the alliance estimates that Russia has suffered between 30,000 and 40,000 battlefield casualties in Ukraine through the first month of the war, including between 7,000 and 15,000 killed.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10664429/Four-EU-countries-expel-43-Russian-diplomats-ONE-DAY-coordinated-anti-espionage-effort.html
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