Lithuania is expelling Russia’s acting chargé d'affaires Sergey Ryabokon, with the Foreign Ministry saying his actions and statements are incompatible with his status as a diplomat.
Ryabokon has been declared an undesirable person in Lithuania and must leave the country within five days.
“This decision of Lithuania is taken in the light of the information provided by the authorities, which substantiates that the recent actions and statements of Mr Ryabokon are incompatible with the status of a diplomat, are to be treated as interference in the internal affairs of the host country and therefore constitute a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomėnas, the decision was made in response to the diplomat’s statements downplaying the January events in Lithuania in 1991 when the Soviet Union used military force in its attempt to remove the legitimate government of Lithuania.
“The decision was made in response to Sergey Ryabokon’s public statements downplaying January 13, 1991, events in Lithuania, his cynical distortion of historical events, as well as his active communication with people acting against the national interests of Lithuania, whose association is under investigation,” Adomėnas said.
He referred to the ongoing law enforcement investigation into activities of the International Forum of Good Neighbourhood, an organisation established by Algirdas Paleckis, a controversial Lithuanian figure sentenced for spying for Russia.
The Lithuanian government has also conveyed strong protestation to the Russian Embassy over Moscow’s annexation of four occupied regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia.
The decision to expel Ryabokon means that Russia will have to appoint a new head of its embassy in Lithuania.
Adomėnas underlined that the level of diplomatic representation between Lithuania and Russia “remains unchanged”.
The interim chargé d'affaires has been heading Moscow’s diplomatic mission in Vilnius since April when Lithuania downgraded its diplomatic relations with Russia and expelled ambassador Alexey Isakov.
Vilnius also recalled its ambassador Eitvydas Bajarūnas from Moscow following revelations about the Russian army’s war crimes in Bucha near Kyiv.
Representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow would take tit-for-tat action in response to the Vilnius decision to expel Ryabokon, the Russian news agency RIA reported.
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