The United States assures that this measure had been in preparation “for several months”.
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Additional diplomatic tension in an already explosive context. In the midst of an open crisis with Russia over Ukraine, the United States decided on Monday, February 28, to expel for “spying” twelve members of the Russian diplomatic mission to the UN. Moscow immediately denounced a “hostile approach”.
“The United States has informed the United Nations and Russia’s permanent mission to the UN that we are beginning the process of expelling twelve intelligence agents from the Russian mission who misused” their diplomatic status in the United States “by engaging in espionage activities contrary to our national security”confirmed the US diplomatic mission to the UN.
The spokesperson for this mission assured that this measure was in preparation “for many months”, seeming to want to distinguish it from the American response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The American camp has not yet revealed the reasons for this decision.
“It is a hostile move against our country”reacted the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, in a press release published on Facebook, adding that this act of the American administration caused a “profound disappointment and an absolute rejection” in Moscow. A Russian diplomatic source told AFP that the expulsion decision did not concern either the Russian ambassador to the UN or his two senior deputies.