The Romanian Foreign Ministry has announced that the Romanian authorities had decided to declare deputy military attache of the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, Alexey Grishaev as persona non grata in Romania, arguing his actions and activities “are contrary to the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relation”.
The Romanian MFA says that the Russian side had been informed about that today, April 26 after Romanian FM Bogdan Aurescu had summoned Russian Ambassador to Romania, Valery Kuzmin to the ministry’s HQs.
On Friday, Russian ambassador Valery Kuzmin posted a stance on the recent developments in Ukraine and on Romania, saying, among others, that Romania should be “concerned” if it got involved in “a military adventure” next to NATO.
“There is no reason for Romania to be worried about the situation in eastern Ukraine, of course, except for the case when, on its own will or of its strategic allies, it would be involved in any way in a military adventure masterminded by the hot heads at the NATO HQs”, the Russian ambassador stated.
In retort, Romanian FM Bogdan Aurescu replied that any threat against Romania is a threat against NATO.
“The fact that Romania is part of this alliance is a guarantee for Romania’s security and of its citizens, without any doubt, that’s why I said there is no danger for Romania and its citizens within the recent crisis (editor note: the Russian troops deployment at Ukraine’s border). But we have to be very clear here: any threat against Romania is in fact a threat against NATO and we take these aspects very seriously“, FM Aurescu told a private broadcaster on Sunday.
Referring precisely to the Russian ambassador’s latest statements, the Head of the Romanian diplomacy pointed out: “I read a reaction the Russian Embassy has posted on Facebook these days and I saw there is a more or less veiled warning against Romania, to not go in the wake of some military adventurers at NATO helm. It is regrettable that the Russian diplomacy is not aware that, after 17 years since Romania has joined NATO, Romania is NATO”.
After Czechia, the Baltic countries- Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – have also joined the action to expel Russian diplomats.
During the past weekend Lithuania announced it is sending home to Russian diplomats, while Latvia and Estonia – one each.
“The EU should have less Russian undercover agents“, the Lithuanian FM Gabrielius Landsbergis has recently stated.