RUSSIA EXPELS EU DIPLOMATS AS ENVOY VISITS MOSCOW

Russia expelled three EU diplomats - from Germany, Poland and Sweden - for their alleged participation in rallies supporting jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the Foreign Ministry said, even as the EU's top envoy visited Moscow, Ella Joyner, Ulf Mauder and Hannah Wagner reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

The Russian opposition figure's sentencing by a Moscow court to three-and-a-half years in a penal camp for a probation violation led to mass demonstrations across the nation and criticism from leaders around the world.

The envoys from the Swedish and Polish consulates in St Petersburg and an employee of the German embassy in Moscow were found to have participated in the unauthorized protests on January 23 in support of Navalny, the ministry said.

Moscow, which has repeatedly accused the European Union (EU) of interfering in its internal affairs, declared the three diplomats "undesirables" and told them to leave the country immediately.

Such actions were incompatible with their status as diplomats, it said.

Sweden rejected the claims and conveyed to Russia that it considered the charges to be unfounded, a Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesperson told dpa.

Berlin, too, sharply criticized the expulsions and warned there would be consequences. "We regard this expulsion to be unjustified and believe that it is a another aspect of what is being observed in Russia at the moment, which is rather far removed from the rule of law," Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a press conference in Berlin with French President Emmanuel Macron.

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