Russia expels nine Finnish diplomats in response to similar actions by Finland

Russia declared nine Finnish diplomats persona non grata and expelled them from the country. They also plan to close the Finnish consulate in St. Petersburg.

This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

The Russians called it measures in response to the "confrontational actions of the Finnish authorities." Diplomatic notes of the Russian Foreign Ministry were handed over to the Finnish side.

The Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg should stop working on October 1. The offices of the Consulate General of Finland in Petrozavodsk and Murmansk, which have been operating since the early 1990s, were to close on July 1.

• On June 6, the Finnish government decided to expel nine employees of the Russian embassy, because they were conducting intelligence activities that are incompatible with diplomatic status.
• This is not the first case of diplomatic confrontation between Moscow and Helsinki. Earlier, Russia was outraged by the "attack" on its consulate in Finland, and then froze the accounts of Finnish diplomatic missions in the country.