Austria is expelling four Russian diplomats who acted „in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status”, the Austrian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday, Reuters and AFP report, Agerpres reads.

The expulsion of diplomats is very rare in Austria, a neutral country traditionally close to Russia before the start of the invasion from Ukraine, AFP notes.

„Two diplomats from the Russian embassy acted in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status. That is why they were declared undesirable persons (personae non gratae) in accordance with Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”, the Austrian MFA indicated in a statement.

The other two diplomats work within the Russian Permanent Mission to the international organizations in Vienna and they acted „in a manner incompatible with the agreement between the United Nations and Austria”.

The four diplomats must leave Austrian territory by February 8 at the latest. Usually, the phrase „activities incompatible with diplomatic status” refers indirectly to acts of espionage.

Russia has an important diplomatic device in Austria both bilaterally and to be represented at the UN agencies in Vienna, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Experts are of the opinion that, since the end of the cold war, Austria, a Central European country with 9 million inhabitants, is a privileged place for international espionage.

Unlike the United Kingdom and a majority of European states, Austria refused in March 2018 to expel Russian diplomats in retaliation for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in England, blamed on the Kremlin.

In August 2020, Vienna expelled a Russian diplomat accused of espionage, a first in the history of this state that considers itself a bridge between East and West.

In April 2022, Austria expelled four more Russian diplomats as part of a coordinated reaction of European countries after the discovery of the massacre in Bucea, a suburb of Kiev that has become a symbol of the brutality and abuses of the Russian forces.

Agerpres