The United States has expelled 12 diplomats from Russia’s Mission to the United Nations for engaging in ‘espionage activities’ that are harmful to U.S. national security, a spokeswoman for the US Mission to the United Nations announced on Monday.
‘The United States has informed the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations that we are beginning the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security,’ the spokeswoman, Olivia Dalton, said in a statement. ‘We are taking this action in line with the UN Headquarters Agreement. This action has been under development for several months’, she added.
Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the UN, learned of the expulsions from a phone call he received while participating in a media meeting at UN headquarters in New York. Nebenzia did not know the identities of the diplomats who were instructed to leave the US by March 7.
In a press conference at the UN, Benezia said the U.S. had taken ‘hostile’ action against the Russian Mission. This violated their obligations under the host country’s agreement by taking those actions. ‘This is sad news and again demonstrates that the host country agreement is violated,’ he said. The United States has been working on this action ‘for months now,’ said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
As a response to Nebenzia’s criticism of the move, Psaki said, ‘I think the hostile act amounts to espionage’. The expulsion of 12 Russian U.N. diplomats comes as the U.S. and European allies impose financial sanctions on Russian banks and oligarchs following the invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration sanctioned Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov directly on Friday and announced on Saturday that the U.S. and European partners had agreed to cut certain Russian banks from use of SWIFT, the financial messaging system.
A new round of sanctions targeting Russia’s Central Bank was announced earlier Monday, which could immobilize any assets the country holds in the United States. Russia is to be cut off from the global financial system and the global economy as a result of the economic measures as a punishment for its continued aggression against Ukraine.
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