Warsaw: Poland has expelled 45 Russian Diplomats. They were suspected of working for Russian intelligence, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
According to Reuters report, Russia said the accusations were baseless.
Addressing a news conference Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina said, “In total, 45 people with varying diplomatic status… were ordered to leave the territory of the Republic of Poland within 5 days.”
he said that they have 48 hours to leave.
He said that aggression towards Ukraine proves that Russia is unfriendly state. He said, “Russia is our neighbour, it will not disappear from the map of Europe, but the aggression towards Ukraine proves that it is an unfriendly state, and even hostile to Poland.”
The diplomats being expelled represent around half of those working at the embassy he said.
Earlier, Special Services Spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn told reporters that 45 people had been identified by Poland’s Internal Security Agency as working for Russian intelligence.
The foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to Warsaw. Later he said that there are no basis for the accusations made against the officials.
“They will have to go. This is a sovereign decision by the Polish side and they have the right to their own decision,” Ambassador Sergey Andreev told reporters outside the ministry.
Russia has rights to take any steps further, Andreev added, without going in detail about what those steps might be.
Poland’s call for expelling the diplomats, follows similar decisions in the Baltic states and Bulgaria.
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