OREANDA-NEWS Five Swedish diplomats have been declared persona non grata as a retaliatory measure, they have been ordered to leave Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

In addition, the Russian side informed the Swedish Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Malena Mard, that Moscow has decided to terminate the activities of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Gothenburg from September 1, 2023, as well as the withdrawal by the Russian side from September 1 of its consent to the activities of the Consulate General of Sweden in St. Petersburg.

The decision of the Russian side, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted, was caused by the announcement on April 25, 2023 of five employees of Russian foreign institutions in Sweden as persona non grata. Russian diplomats were suspected of espionage, Dagens Nyheter notes. This conclusion was reached by journalists in a joint investigation of several media outlets: Swedish SVT, Finnish Yle, Norwegian NRK and Danish DR.