Against Russia, Italy has carried out “openly hostile and unmotivated actions”. With this accusation, in reference to the expulsion of 30 Russian diplomats last month, Moscow decided to expel 24 Italian officials from the embassy, consular offices and ICE in Russia.
The response – which accompanies similar ones decided against France (34) and Spain (27) – took a month and a half to wait. A time that was obviously not enough to appease Moscow’s anger, and perhaps to make it use a special look towards a country considered a friend, until the invasion of Ukraine prompted a strong united response from the EU, including Italy.
“It is a hostile act, but we must not interrupt diplomatic relations” with Russia, was the first reaction of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who explained that “if peace is achieved, it will be achieved through those diplomatic channels.”
A key on which the ambassador Giorgio Starace also struck again, summoned in the morning to the Stalinist-era skyscraper with the hammer and sickle in Smolenskaya Square, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is based, was informed that the 24 Italians declared ‘personas non grata’ must leave Russian territory within 8 days.
The same time granted to the 30 Russians, all accredited to the embassy in Rome in the administrative, commercial and defense sectors, expelled from Italy on April 5.
That day Spain had announced a similar measure for 25 Russians, while 24 hours earlier it had been France’s turn to invite 41 Moscow diplomats to leave the country.
A “coordinated action at European level”, Draghi had stressed. And, in fact, dozens of Russian diplomats had also been expelled from other EU countries. Their reaction, however, was much faster: ten days later, Moscow ordered the departure of 40 German diplomats and 18 from service in the European Union representation in Russia.
France and Spain expressed strong condemnation of Moscow’s diplomatic retaliation. The decision “has no legitimate basis,” the Paris Foreign Ministry said, stating that the expelled Russians were in fact “agents acting on French territory with diplomatic status, operating against the security interests” of the country. transalpine.
Source: Ambito
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