LONDON, Aug. 7 (UPI) — Russia accused the British government of forcing out its diplomats due to ill-defined visa laws. The Kremlin feels as though it is in violation of international law.
Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador, charged British authorities of using bureaucratic tricks to push Russian diplomats out of the country, Interfax reported. The Kremlin’s embassy said the Home Office and Foreign Office in London attemped to “wreck the international order” and for violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
“UK squeezes Russian diplomats out by visa chicanery, thus reducing Embassy staff,” Yakovenko wrote on his Twitter account this week. “Incompatible with intl obligations” of the U.K., the ambassador stressed.
“Our senior department had to depart the U.K. last month because his visa was not extended, another diplomat left without replacement this month, (and) two staff members will have to leave for the same reason,” the Russian Embassy said in a statement.
Four diplomats have since returned to Moscow.
The ambassadorial row comes as relations between Russia and Britain continue to be strained largely due to the Ukraine crisis.
“A certain part of the British elite has made a strategic choice in favour of worsening relations with Russia,” Ambassador Yakovenko also told Russia’s Kommersant. “It’s difficult to reach a different conclusion when you hear that the political leadership of Great Britain regards your country as the main threat on a par with Islamic State.”
Britain’s Foreign Office disagreed with Yakovenko’s charges, saying in a statement Thursday that visas for diplomats were issued according to its own procedures in collaboration with the Home Office.
“Our approach to extending visas for Russian Embassy staff in London reflects the arrangements for British Embassy staff in Moscow,” said a spokeswoman.
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