Russian Foreign Ministry calls Russian diplomats' expulsion from Germany, Sweden, Poland groundless
MOSCOW. Feb 8 (Interfax) - The decision of Germany, Sweden, and Poland to expel Russian diplomats is a groundless and unfriendly step, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told the Rossiya 1 television channel.
"Today's decisions made by Poland, Germany, and Sweden are baseless and unfriendly and come as a follow-up to the string of steps and actions which have been undertaken by the West against our country and which we qualify as interference in our internal affairs," she said.
Earlier on Monday the three countries said they were each expelling a Russian diplomat in response to a similar move from Moscow.
Last Friday the Russian Foreign Ministry said that it was expelling the Swedish, Polish and German diplomats who participated in unsanctioned rallies on January 23 in support of opposition activist Alexei Navalny.
On January 23 and 31, and on February 2, people across Russia held unsanctioned rallies to support Navalny, who was arrested upon his return to Russia on January 17. On February 2, a Moscow court replaced his suspended sentence (in the Yves Rocher case) with an actual prison term of three and a half years.