‘Ordered to leave Russia’: Moscow bans EU diplomats over Alexei Navalny protests

For participating in unsanctioned demonstrations last month in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Moscow on Friday said that it was expelling diplomats from Poland, Germany and Sweden. 

The move comes hours after the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow and described the bloc’s ties with Russia as at a “low point” over Navalny’s jailing, news agency AFP reported.

While Borrell “strongly condemned” the action, Sweden termed it as “completely unfounded”.

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The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that an unspecified number of diplomats from the three EU countries took part in “illegal demonstrations” on January 23 and had been declared persona non grata.

“They were ordered to leave Russia in the near future,” the ministry said, adding that Moscow expects diplomats from the countries to “strictly follow the norms of international law” in the future.

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Till now, Russian police have arrested more than 10,000 people who participated in the demonstrations.

The 44-year-old opposition campaigner was arrested on his arrival in Moscow last month from Germany, where he had been recovering from a poisoning attack that he blames on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.