OTTAWA, ON. (NEWS 1130) – Global Affairs Canada says four Canadian diplomats have been expelled from Russia as the dispute between the Kremlin and the West escalates over the alleged poisoning of a former spy and his daughter earlier this month.
In an email Friday, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says the diplomats have been declared “persona non grata” by the Russian government and efforts were underway for those affected to return to Canada.
“The well-being of Global Affairs Canada employees is our priority. We will be making every effort to support those affected and their families with their return to Canada,” said the department in the statement. “As Minister Freeland has said, the Salisbury nerve agent attack was a despicable, heinous and reckless act that endangered the lives of hundreds and violated long-standing conventions on the use of chemical weapons. This was a direct attack on the rules-based international order.”
The move comes after Freeland announced Monday the expulsion of four Russian diplomats from Canada as the US and more than a dozen European allies took similar actions against dozens of Russian diplomats in their own countries.
On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow summoned the US ambassador to announce the expulsion of 60 US diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to Washington’s move.
Nearly two dozen ambassadors from other countries followed suit Friday.
The expulsions follow the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British city of Salisbury on Mar. 4 by what has been described as a military-grade nerve agent.
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