Russia announced the expulsion of Hungarian diplomats from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Kazan

On October 1, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced to the chargé d’affaires of Hungary the expulsion of employees of the Hungarian embassy in Moscow and the consulates general in Saint Petersburg and Kazan. The ministry protested the “openly unfriendly” expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats from Hungary in early September.

The Hungarian diplomatic staff were given two weeks to leave. Moscow’s decision was a response to Budapest’s actions, which on September 8 announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats.

At the time, Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orban said that 10 employees of the Russian diplomatic mission had been decided to be expelled from the country at once. According to her, they were “engaged in activities unacceptable for diplomats”.

This was the first case of the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Hungary since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. Before that, Budapest last declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata in March 2018.

At that time, Hungary joined the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from Western countries after the poisoning of former GRU colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, UK.

Sources

• Material: theins.ru