\n<\/p>\n
MOSCOW (AP) \u2014 Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday announced the expulsion of two military diplomats from the Romanian Embassy in a tit-for-tat move a month after Romania expelled two Russian diplomats.<\/p>\n
Mutual expulsions of diplomats by Russia and Western countries have become increasingly common in recent years amid heightened tensions over the fighting in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The ministry said in a statement that it summoned the embassy’s deputy head of mission, Liliana Burda, and handed her a notice declaring the embassy’s defense attach\u00e9 and his deputy \u201cpersona non grata.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the move is a response to what the ministry called \u201ca groundless decision\u201d to declare the military attach\u00e9 at the Russian embassy in Bucharest and his assistant \u201cpersona non grata.” The ministry didn’t provide any further detail.<\/p>\n
Romania<\/a> said last month it had expelled two military diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Bucharest over alleged \u201cactivities that contravene the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.\u201d<\/p>\n The Russian embassy at the time described the decision as \u201cunfounded and unfriendly\u201d and said Moscow \u201creserves the right to take retaliatory measures.”<\/p>\n The expulsions came a day after Russia\u2019s SVR foreign intelligence service reportedly claimed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had asked Bucharest to bar Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu<\/a>, who emerged as the frontrunner in last year\u2019s canceled election, from participating in the rerun in May.<\/p>\n Georgescu has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> in the past as \u201ca man who loves his country\u201d and called Ukraine \u201can invented state,\u201d but he claims not to be pro-Russian<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n