NATO cut back its
Russian diplomatic mission staff to 20 from 30 people in solidarity with the UK
over the Skripal poisoning.
ST. PETERSBURG, April
5. /TASS/. NATO’s secretariat has no representatives in Moscow who could be
expelled in response to the alliance’s similar actions, but a great number of
military attaches of its member states have already left Russia, said Andrei
Kelin, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for European
Cooperation, on Thursday.
"NATO as an
alliance has almost no one in Moscow today," he said. "We didn’t
close NATO’s information center in Moscow, but there are only one or two
technical employees there now. There are no secretariat representatives there.
We have currently no one to expel or dismiss."
"NATO is an
assembly of states," he continued. "Tit-for-tat measures were taken
for a whole number of states. Not just diplomats, but a great number of
military attaches as well have left Moscow."
Earlier, NATO cut
back its Russian diplomatic mission staff to 20 from 30 people in solidarity
with the UK over the Skripal poisoning. Some NATO member states declared the
expulsion of Russian diplomats. Russia mirrored moves against them by declaring
an identical amount staff in their embassies personae non gratae.
Source: ITAR-TASS
05-04-2018
