Moscow expels Nordic diplomats

Norway’s Ambassador to Russia Rune Resaland was on the 27th of April summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry where he was told that three of his diplomats are no longer wanted in the country.

According to the Russians, Norway has an “unfriendly line” that inflicts “serious damage to bilateral relations.”

The Foreign Ministry also expressed a “resolute protest” against Norway’s military support to Ukraine and underlined that its “protection of Ukrainian nationalists’ crimes against the peaceful populations of Donbas and Ukraine.”

The expulsion comes only a day after Swedish Ambassador to Russia Malena Mard was given the same message. Three Swedish diplomats will have to leave Russia in the course of the coming weeks, the Russian ministry informs. Russia is also expelling diplomats from a number of more European countries. Germany will have to send home 40 of its representatives in the country.

The decisions come as a response to the two Nordic countries’ expulsion of Russian diplomats in early April. Norway and Sweden were among a big number of European countries that in early April together expelled more than 300 Russian diplomats.

According to the Norwegian side, the Russian diplomats “have carried out activities that are incompatible with their diplomatic status.”

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