North Macedonia declares five Russian diplomats persona non grata

The North Macedonian government has decided to expel five Russian diplomats, the press secretary of the Russian embassy in Skopje, Ilya Serov, said.

Report informs, citing TASS that Russian ambassador to North Macedonia Sergey Bazdnikin was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to present him with a diplomatic note, in which five employees of the Russian embassy are listed as persona non grata. The diplomats must leave the territory of the republic within five days.

In 2021, the North Macedonian government expelled diplomats from the Russian embassy twice. In the context of these events, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that "the North Macedonian administration continues to move along a confrontational path, does not pay attention to the fact that such steps damage bilateral relations."