Russia expels Swedish, Polish, German diplomats over Navalny protests

Russia expels diplomats from Sweden, Germany and Poland for participating in illegal protests against the jailing of Alexei Navalny.

By: Reuters
Updated: February 5, 2021 09:22 PM IST

1 min read

The idea, which Navalny calls smart voting, is to coalesce opposition-minded voters around one particular candidate running against United Russia in each of the country’s 225 electoral districts. (File)

Russia on Friday announced the expulsion of diplomats from Sweden, Germany and Poland, accusing them of taking part in illegal protests last month against the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that Moscow considered the actions of the diplomats unacceptable.

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Responding to this, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday that there will be a response if Russia does not reconsider this step. “Russia’s decision to expel several EU diplomats, including an employee of the embassy in Moscow, is in no way justified and is further damaging relations with Europe,” Maas said in a statement.