By Nikolaus Harbusch and Luisa Volkhausen
According to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Germany has decided on a “mass” expulsion of Russian diplomats. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday in Moscow.
AND: The Russian Foreign Ministry announced countermeasures. Accordingly, German diplomats should also be expelled from Russia. This was a reaction to “Berlin’s hostile actions,” the Russian state news agency Tass quoted the Foreign Ministry in Moscow as saying. The upper limit for employees in German diplomatic missions in Russia will also be significantly limited.
Russian plane in Berlin causes a stir
On Saturday morning, a Russian plane flew from Moscow to Berlin, landing at 9.10 a.m. at BER Airport – and caused a stir on social media. Actually, EU airspace and all EU airports have been closed to all Russian airlines since February 2022. Around three hours later, at 12:13 p.m., the Ilyushin Il 96-300 aircraft took off again and is expected in Moscow in the afternoon.
A spokesman for the Air Force said: The aircraft had a so-called “diplomatic clearance” (“diplomatic release”) had. However, he did not provide any information on the cargo or passengers.
It is not clear whether the Russian diplomats were possibly on board this machine. In general, it is not yet known whether the Russian representatives will be expelled or whether they have already left Germany.
BILD had already reported last week that German and Russian diplomats are to be expelled. “We are currently in contact with the Russian side on questions regarding the staffing of the respective embassies,” the Foreign Office said when asked by BILD.
In the course of their serious tensions in the past, Germany and Russia have repeatedly expelled each other’s diplomats. The representations have already been thinned out. The situation had deteriorated significantly with the start of the Russian war against Ukraine.