Russian diplomats have left Berlin, while Moscow has expelled more than twenty German diplomats. According to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Germany has decided on a “mass” expulsion of Russian diplomats. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Moscow that these were new “hostile actions” by Germany against Russia. A Russian government plane with a special permit landed in Berlin on Saturday and then returned to Russia.
It was unclear how many Russians Germany expelled or how many left the country. The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin initially only confirmed that the federal government had held talks with Russia in the past few weeks on the presence at the respective foreign missions “with the aim of reducing the Russian intelligence presence in Germany”. It went on to say: “Today’s departure of Russian embassy staff is related to this.” The foreign office did not provide any information on whether it was an expulsion, even when asked.
However, it was confirmed that a special Russian flight was related to talks with Russia. In the morning, a Russian government plane flew from Moscow to Berlin with special permission. The Ilyushin Il 96-300 aircraft landed again in the Russian capital at Vnukovo Airport in the afternoon. Initially, however, there was no confirmation from either Moscow or Berlin that the Russian diplomats were on board the aircraft.
Probably more than 20 German diplomats expelled
In Moscow, ministry spokeswoman Zakharova told the state military television station Zvezda that more than 20 German diplomats were being expelled, without giving an exact number. But she had previously announced that Moscow would react equally to the “mass expulsion” of Russian diplomats from Germany. She had said that Germany had decided to take the “hostile” step first.
Zakharova accused the German side of having passed the expulsion of the diplomats to the media in advance, although there had been assurances that the matter would be treated discreetly. Zakharova did not say what and to which medium she was referring specifically. “We strongly condemn this action by Berlin, which continues to demonstratively destroy the entire range of Russian-German relations, including their diplomatic dimension,” the foreign ministry statement said.
There will be a “significant limit to the maximum number of employees in German diplomatic missions” in Russia, Zakharova said. The German Ambassador Géza Andreas von Geyr in Moscow was informed about this earlier this month.
How is Berlin reacting?
“We reject the statement by the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry,” said the Foreign Office in Berlin – which statement was rejected exactly remained unclear, even when asked. The statement was made in connection with the reference to the talks to reduce the number of Russian intelligence officers in Germany.
In the course of their serious tensions in the past, Germany and Russia have repeatedly expelled diplomats from each other. The representations have already been severely thinned out, the services for German citizens are significantly reduced or are associated with longer waiting times, for example when documents are issued. The situation worsened significantly with the start of the Russian war against Ukraine.
In April last year, Russia declared 40 German diplomats “undesirable persons” and thus ordered their expulsion. At that time, more than 100 Germans were affected because family members also had to leave the country. A year ago, that figure alone represented about a third of the German diplomatic corps in Russia. This, in turn, was a reaction to the expulsion of 40 Russian diplomats at the beginning of April 2022, who, according to Berlin, were said to have acted as spies in Germany. Since the Russian war of aggression began, the EU and Russia have each expelled hundreds of diplomats.
How did the relationships develop?
Even before the war, the federal government had repeatedly expelled Russian diplomats as a sanction. In December 2021, as a consequence of a Berlin murder conviction against a Russian, she declared two employees of the Russian embassy to be “undesirable persons” and thus forced them to leave the country. Russia always reacts to such expulsions, as Moscow says, “in a mirror-fair manner.”
The flight of the Russian government aircraft aroused interest on Saturday and was discussed on social media. The aircraft had a so-called diplomatic clearance, said a spokesman for the Air Force on Saturday at the request of the German Press Agency. He gave no information about the cargo or passengers. After the EU closed EU airports and airspace to all Russian airlines in February 2022, Russian planes are rare. Russia has also closed its airspace to flights from the EU. Exceptions are possible with special permits.
