{"id":157680,"date":"2026-09-02T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/157680\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T10:30:12","slug":"exclusive-russian-diplomats-quietly-leave-brussels-as-germany-shuts-another-consulate-over-leipzig-plot-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/157680\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Russian diplomats quietly leave Brussels, as Germany shuts another consulate over Leipzig plot \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russia has quietly sent home some 20 diplomats from Brussels, in line with European demands \u2013 and without taking revenge on the EU mission in Moscow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Russian mission to the EU has complied on time with our decision to cap its maximum size to 40 people, excluding the head of mission,\u201d said EU foreign affairs spokesman Christian Wigand on Tuesday (1 September).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas had given Russia\u2019s acting head of mission Karen Malayan until 1 September to make the cuts, on grounds of Russia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/euobserver.com\/227319\/who-is-karen-malayan-russias-top-diplomat-in-brussels-or-yet-another-spy\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/euobserver.com\/227319\/who-is-karen-malayan-russias-top-diplomat-in-brussels-or-yet-another-spy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cabuse of diplomatic power\u201d<\/a> and the need for closer parity with Kallas\u2019 mission in Moscow.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/euobserver.com\/227319\/who-is-karen-malayan-russias-top-diplomat-in-brussels-or-yet-another-spy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"404\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/72489026_2393583217549224_6654068835986964480_n-1-600x404.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201cabuse\u201d refers to Russia sending hundreds of alleged spies to Europe under diplomatic cover.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Russian mission to the EU used to have some 60 diplomats and technical staff before the cuts, while the EU embassy in Moscow had about 10 diplomats, according to EUobserver\u2019s sources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previous rounds of <a href=\"https:\/\/euobserver.com\/30363\/dekonspiratsiya-meet-20-of-putins-eu-spies\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/euobserver.com\/30363\/dekonspiratsiya-meet-20-of-putins-eu-spies\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Russian diplomat expulsions<\/a> from the EU (including 68 from Belgium) had prompted retaliatory Russian measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia has quietly sent home some 20 diplomats from Brussels, in line with European demands \u2013 and without&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[5754,211,210,73973,18525,8573,63389,63387,73971,18523,8571,63388,73972,18524,8572],"class_list":["post-157680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-identifier4079","tag-identifier4277","tag-identifier4308","tag-identifier4560","tag-nameespionage","tag-nameexclusive","tag-namegermany","tag-namerussia","tag-termcodeespionage","tag-termcodeexclusive","tag-termcodegermany","tag-termcoderussia"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117200986080508451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}