TIRANA, March 26 – Two Russian embassy diplomats were ordered on Monday to leave Albania as their activities “have not been in accordance with their diplomatic status,” according to a statement by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEFA).
The diplomats ousted are Vladislav Filippov, a military attache in the embassy and First Secretary Alexey Nikolaevich Balashov.
The MEFA decision came as part of provisions placed by the US, EU and UK in relation to the alleged Russian nerve agent attack on former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, the UK.
According to the ministry’s statement, the decision was communicated to the Russian Ambassador to Tirana Aleksander Karpushin.
The Russian Embassy to Tirana released a statement responding to the states’ collective decision , saying it is hostile and that it does not help to clear the circumstances behind Skripal’s death.
“This concern an attack on Russian citizens in the UK’s territory. The Russian side has yet to receive any information. UK allies are also in no possession of any objective information, but are blindly adhering to Euro-Atlantic principles which harm common sense and international law principles. It is obvious this hostile collective act will not go unnoticed and we will react to it,” the statement concluded.
Earlier today, US President Donald Trump ousted 60 Russian diplomats in this context and according to Reuters, the US also closed the Russian Consulate in Seattle.
While Russia has still not accepted blame for the nerve agent attack, EU members agreed last week it is ‘highly likely’ it was Russia that did it.
About 18 countries in total expelled Russian diplomats in a coordinated action. Germany and France also notified they will expel four diplomats respectively. Albania was the only of the Western Balkan 6 to join the EU in the move.
The US Embassy to Tirana also released a statement on the situation, saying this was a united measure among the US and its NATO, EU and other global allies in response to the use of chemical weapons by Russia at military level in UK territory.
Moscow described this as a “provocative, non-friendly act that worsens the already hostile situation among Russia, the US and the EU.”
Earlier this week, the MEFA and the Russian Embassy to Tirana had another clash, after the Russian Embassy dismissed what it called an ‘incompetent’ statement by Albania’s foreign ministry in defense of the UK on the alleged Russian attack.
In a mocking reply to the Albanian statement, Russia’s embassy called on Albania to provide evidence to back its letter of support to the UK.
Albania and the former Soviet Union were asymmetric allies for more than a decade before they split over ideological differences. They had no diplomatic ties for about three decades until the 1990s when communism fell in Albania and the USSR dissolved.
It has rather become a tradition for Albania since its first years of democracy in the 90s to follow Western sided foreign policies, in line with the US and EU, where the country aspires membership.
This noticeable in that Albania has so far been the only of six WB countries to oust Russian diplomats, as well as past decisions such as being one of the two WB states joining Western sanctions against Russia.
Responding to Albania’s move to join Western sanctions in 2015, Russia imposed counter-sanctions on Albania which almost paralyzed Albania’s low but rapidly growing fruit and vegetable-dominated exports to Russia.
