Putin’s return coach: Hundreds of German officials must leave Russia

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Hundreds of German officials have to leave Russia. The Russian government has “introduced an upper limit on the number of personnel in German missions abroad and German intermediary organizations,” the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said on Saturday. This limit, which will apply from the beginning of June, “requires a significant cut in all areas of our presence in Russia”. The Russian measure was criticized as “unilateral, unjustified and incomprehensible”.

According to information from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (“SZ”), German diplomats are affected to some extent, but especially cultural mediators such as teachers at the German school in Moscow and a significant number of employees of the Goethe Institute. In general, there is a low to mid-digit number of affected people. The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not provided information on the number of people affected.

According to information from the German Foreign Ministry, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced in April the decision to introduce an upper limit for German civil servants. This decision was “related to the reduction of Russian intelligence presence in Germany,” it said.

Also in April, Moscow announced the expulsion of more than 20 German diplomats. This is described as retaliation for the “massive” expulsion of Russian embassy employees from Germany.

However, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin did not talk about the “expulsion” of Russian diplomats at the time. However, at the end of April, the ministry announced that Russian “ambassador personnel” had been on board a flight from Germany. Earlier there were talks with the Russian side about “reducing the Russian intelligence presence in Germany”.

Moscow now accuses the federal government of having about twice as many officials in Russia as the other way around, the “SZ” reported on Saturday. According to the newspaper report, only about 350 employees of the German state will be allowed to work in Russia in the future. All attempts to dissuade the Foreign Ministry in Moscow from this decision have failed, the “SZ” quoted from German government circles.

On a possible German response, the foreign ministry said: “With regard to the upper limit of the Russian presence in Germany, the federal government will ensure that there is a real balance in practice.”

Relations between Berlin and Moscow have deteriorated drastically as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Russian espionage activity in Germany has reached a level rarely reached in previous years. The German intelligence services repeatedly warn of this threat.

As for the “upper limit” for German state employees in Russia that will apply from June, the foreign ministry in Berlin has now said it will then be a matter of “ensuring a minimal presence of the mediators in Russia while at the same time maintain the diplomatic presence.” This is only possible if “the number of employees is sometimes sharply reduced in all areas”.

According to the information, in addition to workers sent from Germany, local workers are also affected. These Russian employees of German institutions lose their jobs as a result of the Russian measures. (AFP)

Source: Blick