2023-05-31 20:23:47
The German Foreign Ministry announced that it had called on Russia to close four out of five consulates in Germany in response to Moscow’s expulsion of a number of German embassy employees and related bodies operating in Russia.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Christopher Berger told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that the measure aims to create “parity in the number of staff and mission headquarters” between the two countries.
The Russian government recently said that 350 German government officials, including those working in cultural bodies and schools, might stay in Russia.
According to Burger, this means that Germany will have to close three consulates in Russia by November, noting that Russia will be allowed to continue opening the embassy in Berlin and another consulate following the end of the year.
About two days ago, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, announced: “In the beginning, it was the German side that ordered in 2022, unjustifiably, the departure of 40 diplomatic, administrative and technical personnel from Russian foreign missions from the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
Zakharova added that Russia, having imposed restrictions on the maximum number of diplomatic missions for Germany, went only to retaliatory measures, and Berlin itself might decide what to reduce.
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