According to Alexander Schallenberg, Austria will begin to expel Russian diplomats only if they prove non-compliance with the Vienna Convention
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg
Austria will begin to expel Russian diplomats if the republic’s special services have evidence of non-compliance with their activities with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This was announced by the head of the Austrian Foreign Ministry Alexander Schallenberg, reports Vienna.at .
“I definitely reserve the right to take this step. I became the first Austrian Foreign Minister to declare a Russian diplomat persona non grata two years ago. I’ll do it again if necessary. We work closely with the Austrian services,” he said.
According to the minister, there are many international organizations in Vienna where Russian missions work, and he does not want to interfere with the work of such organizations by unjustifiably expelling diplomats. “But if it is necessary, it will be proved or there will be concrete evidence that an employee of some Russian diplomatic mission does not comply with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, then I will take concrete steps,” Schallenberg added.
The Foreign Minister also noted that today every European country acts independently in the expulsion of Russian diplomats, and it is necessary, according to him, to act together within the framework of the European Union.
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is the main international legal document defining the status and functions of a diplomatic mission to the heads of State. The Convention also provides for the security of diplomatic missions.
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Since the end of February, many European countries have imposed sanctions on Russia and announced the expulsions of Russian diplomats. In particular, Germany announced the expulsion of 40 diplomats, France, according to Le Monde, will expel 35 people, Italy— 30, Latvia and Estonia— 27, Spain— 25, Denmark— 15, Sweden— 3. The statements of the European ministries state that the decision was made in consultation with partners and is related to the threat to “national security”.
In addition, on April 1, Bulgaria announced its decision to expel the first secretary of the Russian embassy. The authorities suspected him of collecting information constituting a state secret and transferring it to another party. A criminal case was opened against the diplomat under the article on espionage. Before that, Sofia recognized two Russian diplomats as persona non grata and asked ten more employees of the diplomatic mission to leave the country.
Moscow took retaliatory measures against some countries, expelling diplomats from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and also promising to respond to expulsions from other countries. The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova called the expulsion of Russian diplomats an attempt to “politically” punish Russia. «We are well aware that <..."this is a demonstrative position of the collective West, accusing us of creating a crisis, trying to punish us politically in this way," she said.
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