Russia announced this Thursday the expulsion of two North American diplomats, accused of involvement in espionage, and the United States has already condemned Moscow’s “unjustified” decision, promising to “counterattack” at the time.
The two American diplomats were accused of serving as “liaison” agents for a former Russian official detained earlier this year and suspected of passing information about the war in Ukraine to the United States.
According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE), the two diplomats declared “personae non gratae” are the first and second secretaries of the United States embassy in Moscow, Jeffrey Sillin and David Bernstein.
“They must leave Russian territory within seven days,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.
The US diplomats “carried out illegal activities by establishing a connection with a Russian citizen, Robert Chonov, accused of confidential cooperation with a foreign state” and who “was entrusted with missions in exchange for financial remuneration with the objective of attacking the national security of Russia. accused the Russian multinational.
The United States ambassador in Moscow, Lynne Tracy, was summoned this Thursday to the Russian Foreign Ministry to inform her of the decision, according to the same source.
“The illegal activities of the American diplomatic mission, including interference in the internal affairs of the host country, are unacceptable,” the Russian diplomat also declared.
These expulsions occur at a time when bilateral relations between Russia and the United States are at one of their lowest points, since Washington is one of the main financial and military supporters of Ukraine, a country where Moscow has been carrying out an war of aggression. 2022. .
Robert Chonov, a former employee of the US Consulate General in Vladivostok in the Far East, was charged in late August by Russian security services.
Accused of having collected information on the offensive in Ukraine and military mobilization on behalf of North American diplomacy since September 2022, Chonov faces a sentence of eight years in prison.
In statements to the press, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “This unjustified expulsion of our diplomatic staff is baseless.”
He thus repeated what the United States embassy in Moscow had done shortly before: he condemned in a statement what he described as an unfounded decision by the Russian authorities and promised a response.
“We reiterate our vehement protest against the Russian Government’s constant attempts to intimidate and persecute American embassy personnel,” the ambassador declared, criticizing Moscow for “choosing confrontation and escalation.”
In recent years there have been many mutual expulsions of diplomats between Russia and Western countries, even before the war in Ukraine.
Source: TSF
