SULAIMANI (ESTA) — NATO has expelled eight members of Russia’s mission to the alliance who were “undeclared Russian intelligence officers”, a NATO official said on Wednesday, the latest deterioration in East-West ties that are already at post-Cold War lows.
The expulsion of the Russians was reported earlier by Sky News, which said Moscow’s mission to the alliance headquarters in Brussels would be halved “in response to suspected malign Russian activities, including killings and espionage”, according to Reuters.
There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko accused NATO of duplicity and of using the idea of an alleged threat from Moscow as a bogeyman for its own purposes, Reuters reported.
“The leaders of NATO yesterday spoke of the importance of de-escalating relations with Russia and spoke out in favor of a resumption in dialogue in the framework of the Russia-NATO Council,” Grushko told the Kommersant daily newspaper.
“If anyone believed in the sincerity of those statements then today they don’t. Their real worth is clear to all. After the dramatic end of the Afghan era how can they can get by without the bogeyman of the ‘Russian threat.’ They can’t.”
The West’s ties with Russia remain strained over everything from Ukraine to alleged Russian election meddling to the 2018 poisoning with a nerve agent in England of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Russia accuses NATO of provocatively expanding its military infrastructure closer to its borders. The alliance says it is determined to reinforce the security of member states close to Russia in the wake of Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and backing for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
