The national flag of the Federal Republic of Germany over the Bundestag building in BerlinBERLIN, Apr 4 German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock has declared 40 Russian diplomats persona non grata.
"We have declared a significant number of Russian embassy employees undesirable. We will initiate further reactions together with our partners",” the minister wrote on Twitter.
The N24 TV channel named the exact number of expelled employees with reference to Burbock. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, announced retaliatory measures for the expulsion of Russian diplomatic representatives.Earlier Lithuania and Latvia have announced that they will lower the level of diplomatic relations with Russia by withdrawing their ambassadors from Moscow, while Russian representatives should leave Riga and Vilnius. Austrian Foreign Minister did not rule out the expulsion of Russian diplomats, media reported