HeU.S. government announced this Mondaythe expulsion of 12 Russian diplomats accredited to the United Nations for participating inespionage activities and violate national security regulations.
"The United States has informed the United Nations and the Permanent Mission of Russia to the UN that we are beginning the process of expulsion of 12 intelligence agents from the Russian Mission who have abused their residency privileges in the United States by participating in intelligence activities. espionage adverse to our national security," said Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations.
The official added that Washington was taking this action based on the agreement established on the UN headquarters.
"This action has been in development for several months," Dalton said.
The US authorities gave them until March 7 to leave the country,according to Russian sources.
The move comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine, and sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies to encircle the Russian economy and finances.
The news reached the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, by telephone during a press conference on the war in Ukraine.
The official communication was delivered in a letter to the Permanent Mission of Russia in New York. The Russian representation at the UN has 79 people accredited to the United Nations.
"It is a hostile action that violates the obligations of the United States as the host country of the United Nations," Nebenzia said in conversation with journalists.
Nebenzia also called the decision "sad news" and said Washington was showing "flagrant disrespect" for its commitments, in defiance of the United Nations Charter and the Vienna Convention on the Treatment of Diplomats.
This is not the first time that the United States has declaredpersona non grata to Russian diplomats at the UN. In 2018, theDonald Trump administration expelled a dozen diplomats from the Russian Permanent Mission in New York under similar charges.
Last week, the US expelled Minister Counselor Sergei Trepelkov, number two at the Russian embassy in Washington, in clear retaliation for a similar action by Russia.
Although the decision came justone day after the start of hostilities against Ukraine,The departure of the Russian diplomat is not related to the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin. It was actually the answer to theexpulsion from Moscow of the second head of the American legation, Bart Gorman, in mid-February.
Also in mid-February,the Mexican scientist Héctor Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, internationally recognized for his contributions in cardiovascular treatments and awarded by President Vladimir Putin,pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to serving as an agent of Russia in violation of the laws to act on behalf of a foreign government on United States territory.
The mutual expulsions of diplomats strain relations between the United States and Russia to their most serious level since the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the Soviet Union as a hegemonic power.
Questioned last week at the White House about the state of bilateral diplomatic ties,President Joe Biden said that "if we continue down this path, relations are broken."
This Tuesday, Biden will deliver before Congress the first state of the nation address of his mandate and the national economy, Russia and the conflict in Ukraine are expected to be the predominant topics of his speech.
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