Greece has declared 12 Russian diplomats persona non gratae, the Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday. The Russian diplomats will have to leave the country. The ministry’s secretary general has informed about this decision the ambassador of the Russian Federation in Athens “earlier today,” the ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, authorities declared 12 members of the Diplomatic and Consular Missions of the Russian Federation, accredited in Greece, as personae non gratae.
The 12 Russian diplomats were declared “not welcome in accordance with the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Affairs and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Affairs.”
Οι Ελληνικές αρχές κήρυξαν 12 μέλη των Διπλωματικών & Προξενικών Αποστολών της Ρωσικής Ομοσπονδίας, τα οποία είναι διαπιστευμένα στην Ελλάδα, ως πρόσωπα μη αρεστά (personae non gratae)
Ανακοίνωση➡️https://t.co/wur029TkQP pic.twitter.com/hjRpCNHhnH
— Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών (@GreeceMFA) April 6, 2022
In diplomacy, a persona non grata – Latin: “person not welcome” – is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution.
Under Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a receiving state may “at any time and without having to explain its decision” declare any member of a diplomatic staff persona non grata. A person so declared is considered unacceptable and is usually recalled to his or her home nation.
Greece is the latest of several European Union countries to expel Russian diplomats. This practice of the recent days is done with the characterization of “activity that is not in line with their diplomatic capacity.”
Germany has expelled 40 Russian diplomats, France 35.
Are there any Russian diplomats left in Europe?
There will be tit-for-tat and before you know it, there will be no diplomats left at all. Usually, diplomatic ties are cut at the last moment. And then perhaps we all should head for the hills. But that is not going to help.
This war could have been preventable if diplomacy was allowed to do its work. Most wars are. The French and German diplomats did their best at least. Some other diplomats worked to make peace unattainable.
In February, the U.S. expelled 12 Russian diplomats for allegedly “engaging in espionage activities”.
Today, Canada has announced allowing its Russian diplomats to stay, in fear of tit-for-tat reciprocation of expelling Canadian diplomats from Russia. Canada says that the reason is because it wants to keep abreast of what’s happening in Russia and can’t do that if their diplomats are removed /not there.
One might think there would be a better organized alliance when it came to diplomats, armed conflict, sanctions, etc., than allow any loopholes or the circumvention of joint efforts. Russia still rakes in literally billion per week from energy sales to finance their barbaric invasion for all the good sanctions do so far.