Austria Russia diplomats row deepened on Friday when Vienna expelled four Russian diplomats over activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, a term usually used for spying.
Austria’s foreign ministry said it was expelling the four Vienna-based diplomats, according to Reuters. Based on findings by the Austrian security authorities, the ministry has taken measures against four Russian diplomats in Vienna, it said in a statement, adding that they had been declared personae non gratae and ordered to leave the country.
Three of them worked at Russia’s embassy to Austria and one at the Russian delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on military security and arms control, the ministry said.
The eighteenth expulsion since 2020
The move brings to 18 the number of Russian diplomats Austria has expelled since 2020, according to Reuters. While Austria is a neutral country, politically its governments have sided with Ukraine since Russia launched its all-out invasion in 2022.
Vienna is thoughtlessly following the West’s anti-Russian policy, and there will inevitably be an appropriate response to such measures, the Russian embassy said in a statement on its website, describing the expulsions as a further unfriendly step towards Russia by the Austrian authorities.
Vienna’s diplomatic backdrop
While Austria does not usually comment on the specifics of such expulsions, during the last round in May, when it expelled three Russian diplomats, it said it was because of an antenna forest on the roofs of Russian diplomatic buildings that could be used for spying, according to Reuters.
Vienna is a major diplomatic centre, hosting the OSCE and United Nations organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency. Larger countries like Russia and the United States often have separate ambassadors to Austria, the OSCE and UN organisations, each running an embassy or mission. Russia’s promised response means the row is unlikely to end with Friday’s expulsions.
Diplomatic expulsions rarely end a dispute, and Moscow’s promise of an appropriate response suggests a reciprocal move may follow. For Vienna, a city built on diplomacy, the expulsions underline how even neutral hosts are drawn into the wider confrontation between Russia and the West.
