In addition to summoning the US ambassador to Moscow, Russia has also expelled two American diplomats who are suspected of cooperating with a Russian spy.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it had summoned Ambassador Lynne Tracy and informed her that first secretary Jeffrey Sillin and second secretary David Bernstein needed to leave Russia within a week.
The ministry declared the two diplomats “persona non grata,” claiming they had collaborated with a Russian national suspected of working for a foreign power.
The ministry claimed that “the named individuals engaged in illegal activity, maintaining contact with Russian national R. Shonov, who is accused of engaging in confidential cooperation with a foreign state.”
According to Reuters, Robert Shonov worked for the US Consulate General in Vladivostok, a city in eastern Russia, for more than 25 years up until 2021, when Moscow forbade the local staff from working for the US mission.
The ministry added that Sillin and Bernstein were informed by the US ambassador that they had been given the status of persona non grata and had to leave Russian territory within seven days.
Shonov was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in May on suspicion of informing the two American diplomats about the conflict in Ukraine.
Washington criticized Moscow for the action, charging it with using “increasingly repressive laws against its own citizens.”
Asserting that Moscow was attempting to intimidate and harass US workers, the US rejected the claim against the personnel at its embassy last month.
On Thursday, however, the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that Shonov had been paid to carry out tasks that threatened Russia’s security, and it vowed to put an end to any interference by the US embassy in Russian domestic affairs.
Since years, relations between Russia and the US have deteriorated, and as retaliation, both sides have expelled diplomatic personnel.
In February, the US expelled 12 diplomats from Russia’s UN mission in New York on the grounds that they were involved in espionage.
Moscow criticized the action, calling it hostile and a flagrant breach of US commitments.
