Following the decision by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 8, 40 Russian diplomats and technical and administrative staff from the Russian Embassy are repatriated on Saturday, July 1st. The diplomats take off on Saturday, around noon local time, and fly to Moscow with their families.
The measure to expel 40 diplomats from the Russian Embassy was taken on June 8 after the Russian Ambassador to Bucharest, Valery Kuzmin, implied on June 6 that Romania is a softer country than all the others, which took similar measures. Nonetheless, Romania had expelled other diplomats in the past.
A special clearance was issued for the Russian plane, which will take the diplomats to Moscow, as all Russian aircraft flights are forbidden in the EU space. The Ilyushin IL-96 is authorized to land on Otopeni and take off at 12.30.
According to the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia is reducing the number of officials in Romania by 11 diplomats and 29 employees from the technical-administrative sector.
The choice of the positions that will be reduced and the people who will have to leave Romania will belong (in this phase) to the Russian Federation, respecting the limitations related to each category (diplomats, respectively, technical-administrative personnel). Thus, the total number of diplomatic and technical-administrative positions of the Russian Federation in Romania is reduced by 61%, and the adequate number of personnel by 55.5%
Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Even if the Russian personnel had one week more to comply with the Romanian authorities’ request, their Embassy decided to carry out the mission earlier. Initially, they had 30 days to comply with the request.
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