The transfer comes because of “confrontational actions” by the authorities of Finland, Moscow says
Russia is withdrawing its consent for the operation by neighbor Finland of its consulate common in St Petersburg and is expelling 9 Finnish diplomats, its international ministry has introduced.
Finland’s common consulate will stop its actions in Russia’s second largest metropolis from October 1, Moscow mentioned in a press release on Thursday.
Finnish ambassador to Russia Antti Helantera was summoned to the Overseas Ministry and knowledgeable in regards to the choices, made in response to “confrontational actions” by Helsinki, the assertion learn.
In June, Finland expelled 9 diplomats on the Russian embassy in Helsinki, accusing them of performing intelligence missions “opposite to the Vienna conference on diplomatic relations.”
The Finnish ambassador was additionally advised that the Nordic nation’s entry into NATO in April was “a risk to Russia’s safety,” Moscow mentioned. Helsinki claimed that it deserted its long-standing coverage of non-alignment and utilized to hitch the US-led army bloc on account of issues over the Russian army operation in Ukraine, launched in February 2022.
“Encouraging the Kiev regime to go to struggle [with Russia] and pumping it with Western weapons” had been “clearly hostile actions” by Helsinki that couldn’t be left unanswered, the assertion added.
Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, has not too long ago been disrupting financial ties and human contact between the 2 international locations, discriminating towards Russians when issuing entry visas and creating obstacles for the common actions of Russian diplomats, Moscow has mentioned.
The course pursued by Helsinki is geared toward “breaking down the mutually useful Russian-Finnish relations which were fashioned over a long time,” it identified.
Responding to the most recent transfer, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto mentioned on social media that Moscow’s measures had been a “harsh and uneven” response to Finland’s expulsion of diplomats. Helsinki is making ready a “related measure” in response, he mentioned, suggesting that the Consulate Common of Russia in Turku might be shut.
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