Russia to Oust Canadian Diplomats
| Associated Press
MOSCOW --- Russia will expel two Canadian diplomats in retaliation for the North American Treaty Organization's recent expulsion of two Russian envoys from the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, the Canadian Embassy in Moscow said Wednesday.
The director of the NATO Information Office in Moscow, Isabelle François, and a colleague are to be expelled, said Nicholas Brousseau, a spokesman at the embassy, where both diplomats are attachés.
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Ambassador Ralph Lysyshyn was informed of the decision at a Russian Foreign Ministry meeting early Wednesday, Mr. Brosseau said. The embassy called the decision "counterproductive."
"Canada strongly regrets the decision," Mr. Brousseau said. "Canada and NATO allies have been seeking to re-engage Russia." Ms. François couldn't be reached for comment immediately.
NATO last week announced it would revoke the accreditation of two members of Russia's mission to NATO, allegedly over a spy scandal dating back to February. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday withdrew from a Russia-NATO council meeting scheduled for late May in protest of the "provocative" move.
Russia is also riled by NATO military exercises scheduled that began Wednesday in neighboring Georgia, which fought a recent war with Russia. Russia sees the exercises as Western meddling in its rightful sphere of influence. Russian officials have accused NATO of intervening in Georgia's domestic politics by holding the exercises there.
Georgian Defense Ministry spokesman David Dzhokhadze said in the capital Tbilisi that no battlefield maneuvers were planned until at least May 11. Until then, organizational meetings would dominate proceedings, he said.
Mr. Dzhokhadze said Georgia expects 15 countries to take part in the exercises after official notification from Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Serbia that they wouldn't take part. He said reports of the withdrawal of Armenia, which is dependent on Russia for its economic survival, hadn't been confirmed.
Georgia put down a mutiny of several hundred army officers of a tank battalion near Tbilisi on Tuesday.
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