The 27 officials left Moscow on Tuesday by road to Riga
The 27 officials of the Spanish embassy in Russia, whose deportation was communicated to Ambassador Marcos Gómez on May 18, left the Russian capital on Tuesday to be repatriated. This is reported by the Russian newspaper ‘Izvestia’ on its website, including a video of the moment when the Spanish diplomatic vehicles leave the building of the embassy in Moscow.
Sources close to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, consulted by the publication ‘The Objective’, indicate that the Spanish diplomats who have been declared ‘persona non grata’ will travel by road to Riga, the capital of Latvia, this Tuesday. where a plane will pick up shipped from Spain. Last Wednesday, they were all given a week to leave Russia, the same deadline Russian diplomats had in April to leave Spain.
This is the most mass deportation of Spanish diplomats accredited by Moscow since the restoration of diplomatic relations in 1977 and is the response to the same measure passed by the Spanish government on April 5. Subsequently, 25 Russian diplomats and two members of the service personnel of the Russian embassy were expelled from the country, which Madrid considers “a threat to the security” of Spain. At present, after those deportations, the Russian representation in Spain consists of 22 officials, including the ambassador, Yuri Korchagin.
Spain, along with the rest of the European Union, the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and other countries, has adopted two sets of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and the Bucha massacre, the measures of which include the expulsion of Russian diplomats. Since then, Moscow has gradually responded in a reciprocal manner.
In the case of Spain, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided not to expel 25 Spanish diplomats, not one of whom would have remained in the embassy, but only twelve, about half of those accredited, and to add the figure fill it with fifteen Spanish diplomats. civil servants with a service passport or administrative staff. That comes to a total of 27.
But the non-diplomatic Spanish staff of the Spanish Legation in Russia has been drastically reduced. For example, in the Moscow consulate, in addition to the deputy consul general and the consul (both diplomats), seven Spanish workers leave, which is almost the same number that remains, so that most of the workers are now hired locally. This situation of a significant majority of Russian personnel also arises at the embassy and at the Cervantes Institute.
Among the diplomatic staff of the embassy, the ministers of Culture, Tourism, the Press and one of the members of the Economic and Commercial Bureau are leaving Russia. The measure has also affected the director of the Cervantes Institute in Moscow, Juan Carlos Vidal, who is leaving this center on a very limited basis, where cultural activity was previously suspended due to the pandemic.
Among the diplomats who remain in Russia and who will continue to do their work are, in addition to Gómez, the Ambassador, the Consul General, María Isabel Vicandi, the Consul of Saint Petersburg, Félix Valdés, the Minister Adviser, Agustín Núñez, and those in charge of political affairs, Javier Blanco and Tamara Zabala, in addition to the head of the Economic and Commercial Bureau, Alicia Varela.
The departure by road of the Spanish diplomatic officials was due to the impossibility of sending an aircraft to Moscow, as there is a ban on flying over Russian airspace for aircraft from the European Union, where, in turn, neither the flight of Russian and Belarusian plane is allowed.
However, Spain allowed a flight to arrive in April to repatriate Russian diplomats, though it had to return to Moscow via a huge detour to avoid European airspace.
Source: La Verdad
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