Russia has decided to suspend the work of its Embassy before NATO from next month. The Russian Government thus responds to the Decision of the Alliance to revoke the accreditation of eight employees of the Russian Permanent Mission, accused of working in a disguised way for Russia’s intelligence services. “In response to the actions of NATO, we suspend the Work of our permanent mission, including the work of the main military representative, probably from November 1, although this may take a few more days, “the Russian Foreign Minister, Serguei Lavrov reported, at the end of the meeting. His homologue by Guinea-Bissau, Suzi Carla Barbosa. “If NATO members have any urgent matter, they can contact our ambassador in Belgium,” said Lavrov cited by the Tass news agency. This ‘slab’ of the Russians will have Effects outside of Brussels. While he leaves his mission before the Western Military Alliance, Russia also “suspends the NATO military mission in Moscow” and “puts an end to the activities of the Information Office” of the Alliance on Russian Soil. The staff of the NATO military mission in Moscow will be stripped of its accreditation as of November 1, the Russian news agencies reported. The NATO announced on October 6 that he had expelled eight members of the Russian Mission before the Alliance because, he said, they were “undeclared Russian intelligence officers”. After the announcement of the expulsion, almost two weeks ago, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Alexander Grushko, accused NATO of duplicity and to use the idea of a supposed Moscow threat to pursue its own ends. Leonid Slutsky, head of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian Lower House of Parliament, was added to criticism warning that Moscow would retaliate.
The meetings of the NATO-Russian Council have not been held since 2019. The ties between the West and Moscow have deteriorated a lot since the Crimean annexation by Russia in 2014 and by Russian participation in the East of Ukraine. For its part, Moscow accuses NATO to aggressively expand its military infrastructure closer to Russian borders. Now a communication channel is closed. Not the only one, but an important one. When NATO expelled the alleged Russian spies at the beginning of the month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the Alliance had to act against the growing “malignant” Russian activities. Head of NATO said that the decision to expel Russian representatives was not “linked to any particular event”, and did not give many more details about the measure. But Sky News reported that NATO’s decision was related to explosions in a Czech ammunition deposit in 2014 in which, according to Prague, two Russian spies were involved. That incident between the Czech Republic and Russia caused the mutual expulsion of dozens of EU diplomats and Russia and more personnel from the Embassy. The Russian delegation closes when it had been reduced to ten representatives. But he had already been decimated before, when seven of his members were expelled after the 2018 poisoning with novichok of the former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in Great Britain. The applications for accreditation of three other Russian diplomats were denied.stoltenberg said this month that “the relationship between NATO and Russia is at its lowest point since the end of the Cold War. And that is due to Russian behavior.” “There is an obvious contradiction in the statements of NATO representatives about the desire to normalize relations with our country and its real actions,” Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said a few days ago.
