NORTH MACEDONIA EXPELS 3 RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS

The foreign ministry of North Macedonia revealed on Saturday that it has ordered the expulsion of three further Russian diplomats, the third such action since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

On September 12, Sergey Bazdnikin, the Russian Federation’s ambassador in Skopje, was called into a meeting and informed that three of his colleagues had been declared personae non grata and were required to leave the nation, the ministry stated in a statement.

“Such a decision was adopted after information was received from competent institutions about activities being taken against the Vienna convention for diplomatic relations,” it was noted.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the tiny Balkan nation has twice expelled Russian officials. Five Russian diplomats were expelled in March 2023, and six more were given the go-ahead to depart a month later. The former Yugoslav nation joined NATO in March 2020 and is working towards joining the European Union. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022, North Macedonia sanctioned Moscow in line with the EU, with Skopje officials designating Moscow as a “hostile state.”