The Russian authorities have begun to form a list of “unfriendly” countries that will not be able to recruit employees from Russia to their diplomatic missions. This was announced by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.

“As we understand it, the whole story began with another round of unfriendly actions by the United States. <…> As you understand and how can I confirm this, of course, the United States appears on the list of [“unfriendly” countries], ”Zakharova said on the air of the Russia 24 TV channel (quoted by  TASS ).

On April 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin by his decree restricted the work of diplomatic missions of  countries committing “unfriendly actions” towards Russia, forbidding them to hire “individuals located on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Earlier in April, Maria Zakharova said that the Russian authorities had banned the United States and the Czech Republic from hiring Russian citizens to work in their embassies.

On April 15, the United States  imposed  new sanctions on Russia, which included, among other things, the expulsion of ten Russian diplomats from Washington. Moscow responded to this in a mirrored manner, sending ten American diplomats.

On April 17, the Czech Republic expelled 18 Russians  due to explosions at military depots in Vrbetica  in 2014, Russia responded by expelling 20 Czech employees. After that, the Czech Foreign Ministry announced a further reduction in diplomatic missions – 32 employees will remain in the embassies in Moscow and Prague.

(C)MEDUZA 2021