Russia’s foreign ministry announced on Saturday the expulsion of “more than 20” German diplomats in response to similar measures taken by Berlin, but which Germany has not confirmed, AFP, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

“More than 20 German diplomats are being expelled from Russia,” spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy Maria Zakharova told the Zvezda TV channel.

Earlier on Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement announcing “retribution” for the “new mass expulsion” of Russian diplomats from Germany. “We strongly condemn these actions of Berlin, which continue to destroy the entire spectrum of Russian-German relations, including their diplomatic dimension,” the Russian diplomacy added.

Moscow says that on April 5 it “officially notified” the German ambassador of its decision to “significantly limit the maximum number of employees of German diplomatic missions” in Russia.

• Russia declares that it will respond in kind to the mass expulsion of its diplomats from Germany

Berlin claims that Russian espionage in Germany has reached an unprecedented level in recent years

In connection with AFP, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany reported that it “took note of the statements” of Maria Zakharova. “The federal government and the Russian side have been in contact during the past weeks,” in particular regarding “reducing the presence of Russian special services in Germany,” the German Foreign Ministry added.

Germany, which was a close economic partner of Moscow before the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, has since distanced itself from Russia, financially and militarily supporting Kyiv in the conflict.

At the end of January, Berlin finally agreed to send a certain number of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, which became a major event in the West’s military support for the Ukrainian army.

In the spring of 2022, Germany expelled 40 Russian diplomats who posed, in Berlin’s opinion, a threat to the Western European country.

According to German security services, since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Russia’s espionage activity in Germany has increased to an unprecedented level in recent years.

On October 18 last year, the head of the German cyber security agency, Arne Schoenbom, was fired after articles appeared in the press about his closeness to a cyber security consulting association, which is also suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence services.

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