MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) - Russia is expelling two employees of the embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow from the country as a tit-for-tat measure, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Joost Reintjes, charge d'affaires a.i. of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Russian Federation, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on January 18. A strong protest was declared to him due to the unfounded declaration as personae non gratae in December 2020 of two diplomats from the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands allegedly for activities 'incompatible with their diplomatic status'," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
"The official with the Embassy of the Netherlands was told that the Russian side had used the principle of reciprocity and had made the decision to expel from the Russian Federation two diplomats from the Embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow. They will need to leave the territory of the Russian Federation within two weeks," the ministry said.
Commenting on the Netherlands' decision, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that "the authorities of the Netherlands have again used their favorite way of making unfounded and slanderous accusations."
"This unfriendly and provocative step, and also the new spiral of anti-Russian hysteria organized by the Hague with assistance from the pro-government media, have demonstrated the absence of common sense and understanding of real problems in Russian-Dutch relations in the Dutch administration, the persistence of the tendency towards further deliberate sabotage of their foundations," the statement said.