Russian expulsion of Swedish envoy ‘completely unfounded’: Sweden

Sweden on Friday blasted Moscow’s decision to expel one of its diplomats as “completely unfounded”, rejecting Russia’s claim the envoy had joined unauthorised demonstrations in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

“The ministry considers this as completely unfounded, which we have also told our Russian counterpart”, the Swedish foreign ministry said in written remarks to AFP, adding that it “reserves the right to an appropriate response”.

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that an unspecified number of diplomats from Sweden, Germany and Poland took part in “illegal demonstrations” on January 23 and had been declared persona non grata.

The Swedish foreign ministry said its diplomat had attended a demonstration as an “observer” but had not actively taken part.

“It is a natural part of a diplomat’s core duties to monitor political developments in their host country,” the ministry said.

Russian police have arrested more than 10,000 people at mass demonstrations across the country where protesters denounced Kremlin rule and demanded the authorities release Navalny.

The 44-year-old opposition campaigner was arrested on his arrival in Moscow last month from Germany, where he had been recovering from a poisoning attack he blames on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.