Four Russian diplomats, including two accredited to the United Nations in Vienna, were expelled by Austria, a rare decision in this neutral country, traditionally close to Russia before the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian diplomats acted “in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status,” Austria’s foreign ministry justified in a statement sent to AFP news agency on Thursday.
“These people were asked to leave the territory by February 8 [próxima quarta-feira]”, added the source, without providing further details.
Russia maintains an important diplomatic apparatus in Austria on a bilateral level, as well as representing it in various United Nations agencies, as well as in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Since the Cold War, experts have been convinced that Austria, a country in Central Europe with a population of nine million, is a privileged location for international espionage.
Diplomatic expulsions are rare in the country.
Austria stood out from Britain and most European states in March 2018 when it refused to expel Russian diplomats in retaliation after the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal, which was blamed on the Kremlin.
The country expelled a Russian diplomat accused of espionage in August 2020, for the first time in the history of this state, which sees itself as a bridge between East and West.
It then expelled four Russian diplomats in April 2022 as part of a coordinated response by European countries following the discovery of the massacre in Bucha, a suburb of Kiev that has become a symbol of the brutality of Russian troops.
Austria, a member of the European Union (EU) with a policy of military neutrality, has sent aid to Ukraine, but no military equipment. This is reported by the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen was in Kiev on Wednesday for a trip to highlight Austria’s solidarity.
Vienna is home to several UN agencies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Source: DN
