Italy announced that it expelled 30 Russian diplomats on Tuesday (05). They are “persona non grata” that posed a risk to “national security.”
The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ettore Sequi, summoned the Russian ambassador in Rome, Sergey Razov – on the orders of Minister Luigi Di Maio – to notify him of the decision.
Moscow's reaction was immediate. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it will “respond” to the expulsion of the 30 diplomats in Italy: “Russia will give an appropriate response,” said the minister's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, according to Corriere.
The expulsion measure “taken in common agreement with other European and Atlantic partners was necessary due to reasons linked to our national security, in the context of the current crisis situation resulting from the unjustified aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation”, explained the Di Maio.
In recent weeks he has received brutal messages on social media, generally accompanied by the letter Z, such as “Putin has to send someone to kill him”, “They will assassinate you”, “Die bastard” and “Di Maio with a bar of iron in the brain.”
Also this Tuesday, the German government declared 40 Russian diplomats from the Berlin embassy “persona non grata”, urging them to leave the country, informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock.
Yesterday, France announced that it will expel 35 Russian diplomats “whose activities are contrary to (their) interests.”
Denmark said it had decided to expel 15 Russian diplomats following reports of mass graves being found and killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said.
Lithuania had also already announced the expulsion of the Russian ambassador and the closure of the Russian consulate in the Lithuanian city of Klaipeda, in response to Moscow's military actions in Ukraine.
