Germany, Poland and Sweden have expelled a Russian diplomat in a coordinated act of retaliation for the expulsion of three EU officials by Moscow while the bloc’s foreign policy chief was visiting last week.
Monday’s strong expulsions highlighted the volatility of East-West relations and the erosion of confidence among former enemies of the Cold War, as the West accuses Moscow of trying to destabilize it and the Kremlin rejects it. which he considers foreign interference.
The EU executive defended Josep Borrell during his trip to Russia, where he said he had known about the initial expulsions via social media while speaking on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said the withdrawal of diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden, accused by Moscow of participating in last month’s protests against jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, which took place a day earlier of Borrell’s journey.
The German foreign office, in a statement on the expulsion of a Russian diplomat, said the German official expelled by Moscow was only “carrying out his task of reporting on developments in situ legally.”
Poland’s foreign ministry said it had ordered a member of the Russian consulate in the city of Poznan to leave “in accordance with the principle of reciprocity and in coordination with Germany and Sweden.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said the Stockholm action was a “clear response to the unacceptable decision to expel a Swedish diplomat who was only exercising his functions”.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said EU countries’ action against their diplomats was “unjustified and unfriendly,” Interfax news agency reported.
In a blog post on Sunday afternoon, Borrell said his requests to Russia to stop the expulsions were ignored. Former Estonian defense chief Riho Terras, now an EU lawmaker, has launched a campaign calling for the resignation of the high representative.
But the European Commission executive said he did not regret Borrell making his first trip to Moscow as the EU’s foreign policy coordinator because Russia was headed for confrontation.
“It simply came to our notice then. One does not give up on a trip because it seems difficult, “said commission spokesman Eric Mamer in Brussels.” A trip is not a success or a failure depending on what happens at a particular time. “
Peskov told reporters that Russian officials “were not the initiators of the collapse of relations.”
On Tuesday, Borrell will address the European Parliament, which has called for sanctions to stop the completion of the Nord Stream 2 energy pipeline between Russia and Germany. Some EU states were stepping up the push for new Western sanctions against Moscow, two diplomats said.
Poland on Monday convened a two-hour video call with EU states joined by envoys from Britain, the United States, Canada and Ukraine, as well as two Navalny allies, Vladimir Ashurkov and Leonid Volkov, to discuss the policy on Russia, including potential sanctions.
Navalny was jailed on Feb. 2 after a Russian court ruled he had violated the terms of a suspended sentence in an embezzlement case that he said was misleading.
During the official visit, Borrell and Lavrov gave a press conference in which the Russian minister described the EU as “an unreliable partner” and the Spaniard praised Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Borrell had gone to Moscow to seek Navalny’s release and to try to relaunch EU-Russia relations, but on the blog he said Friday’s press conference had been “aggressively organized” and that the trip had been “very complicated “.
“Russia is gradually disconnecting from Europe and views democratic values as an existential threat,” Borrell wrote. “It will be up to the member states to decide the next steps, and yes, they could include sanctions.”