The Russian diplomats expelled from Slovakia flew home. This was announced on August 11 by the press secretary of the diplomatic mission Vladislav Kulikov.
“The diplomats left Slovakia and flew home,” TASS reports.
The embassy employees took off on a special Aeroflot flight SU2031 from Budapest. From the airport of the Hungarian capital named after Franz Liszt, the board started at 12:50 CET (13:50 Moscow time).
The fact that Slovakia decided to expel three Russian diplomats was reported by Bloomberg a day earlier, citing an anonymous official. He noted that they are suspected of espionage. The information was later confirmed by the Foreign Ministry of Slovakia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry promised a mirror response to the actions of Bratislava.
The US State Department, in turn, welcomed the expulsion of diplomats. According to a State Department spokesman, the Slovak Foreign Ministry sent a clear signal that “it will not tolerate Russia’s politically motivated criminal actions on Slovak territory or in Europe.”