Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (source: TASR/AP)
Three Slovak diplomats will have to leave the Slovak Embassy in Moscow. It is a response to Slovakia's earlier decision to expel three Russian diplomats for violating the Vienna Convention on diplomacy. They are said to be working for the intelligence service, the Denník N daily reported.
The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry invited the Slovak ambassador to Russia on August 31, expressing the “resolute protest in connection with the unjustified expulsion of three diplomats working at the Russian Embassy in Slovakia”.
Russia took reciprocal steps and expelled three Slovak diplomats.
Slovakia does not consider the expulsion an “adequate and justified” response, but its Foreign Affairs Ministry expected the response. Slovakia is sending diplomats to Russia whose task is to “try to cultivate bilateral relations,” Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korčok said.
St Petersburg scandal
Slovakia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has recently been dealing with a scandal involving Slovakia's general consulate in St. Petersburg.
Last summer, the staff of the consulate allowed a Russian citizen suspected of being involved in the murder of a Georgian citizen in Berlin into the European Union, the media reported in early July this year.
The Russian was awarded a one-year visa even though it was under a fake identity. Korčok has sent investigators to St. Petersburg to find out whether it was a failure of the Slovak diplomats or if they directly cooperated with Russian authorities.
