Russia outraged at downsizing of its embassy in Denmark
On Friday evening, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, briefly commented on Denmark's decision to equalise the number of Russian diplomats in Copenhagen with that of Danish diplomats in Moscow.
Source: Zakharova’s comment, published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and cited by European Pravda
The comment states that Moscow considers the Danish government’s demand for the number of Russian diplomats in Copenhagen to be reduced from 15 to 5 as "another manifestation of the Danish leadership’s hostility towards our country".
Zakharova added: "The necessary conclusions will of course be drawn."
Background: On 1 September, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark informed the Russian ambassador, Vladimir Barbin, that the staff of the Russian embassy in Copenhagen must be downsized to a level that would correspond to the staff of the Danish embassy in Moscow – five diplomats and 20 administrative and technical staff.
Talks about increasing the staff of the Danish embassy got nowhere because Moscow continued its attempts to send members of its intelligence service to Denmark.
In April 2022, the Danish Foreign Ministry announced that 15 Russian intelligence operatives who had worked undercover at the Russian embassy had been expelled.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European states have expelled several hundred Russian spies who had been working in embassies under diplomatic cover.
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