On Monday 26 March, European Council President Donald Tusk announced that 14 EU member states had decided to expel Russian diplomats in retaliation for the poisoning of a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in Salisbury, UK (see EUROPE 11987, 11988).
"As a direct follow-up to last week’s European Council decision (on 22 March) to react to Russia within a common framework, already today (26 March) 14 member states have decided to expel Russian diplomats", Tusk told press at the EU-Turkey mini-summit in Varna. "Additional measures, including further expulsions within this common EU framework are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks", he said.
According to official or media sources, France, Germany and Poland will each expel four Russian diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania three each, Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands two diplomats each, and Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Finland, Sweden and Croatia one diplomat each. The UK has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats. The Belgian and Irish governments are due to discuss similar measures this Tuesday.
By contrast, the EU has not expelled diplomats from the Russian Mission to the EU. These diplomats are formally accredited by the Kingdom of Belgium. And while, according to Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the request was made by the European leaders at the summit, Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel is reported to have refused to bear the responsibility alone for such an expulsion. Belgium is not therefore one of the 14 member states that are expelling diplomats, according to the same newspaper.
Recalled for consultations, as requested by the European Council, the head of the EU delegation in Russia, Markus Ederer, met High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini when he arrived in Brussels on Sunday 25 March. He will continue institutional consultations in the coming days, the European External Action Service said in a press release.
The USA meanwhile has announced that it is expelling "60 spies", including 12 intelligence officers from the Russian Mission to the UN. Canada will expel four diplomats and Ukraine will expel 13.
Russia responded immediately. "The provocative gesture of the so-called solidarity of these countries with London (...) is a continuation of the confrontational policy to escalate the situation", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release. It continued: "it goes without saying that this unfriendly move by this group of countries will not go unnoticed, and we will respond to it".
While the EU remains "critical of the actions of the Russian government", Tusk nevertheless expressed his condolences to Russia following a deadly fire in a shopping centre in Kemerovo, western Siberia. "We Europeans – together with the Russian people – mourn the victims of the tragic fire (...) Our thoughts and hearts are with you", he said in English in and then in Russian. Tusk has not congratulated Putin on his recent re-election.
At least 64 people died in the fire, but many others are still reported to be missing. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)