France has decided to expel six Russian spies who it says were operating under cover of their embassy in Paris and “whose activities have been proven to be contrary to (its) national interests,” the foreign ministry said Monday evening. known. through a press release.
“After a very long investigation, the Directorate General for Homeland Security (DGSI) unveiled this Sunday, April 10, a clandestine operation carried out by the Russian intelligence services on our territory. Six Russian agents operating under diplomatic cover (…) have been declared persona non grata,” the ministry said in a statement.
“In the absence of the Russian ambassador, the number two has been called to the Quai d’Orsay this evening to be informed of this decision.”
Already 35 evictions last Monday
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin praised the work of French counterintelligence. “Remarkable counterintelligence operation. Bravo to the DGSI agents interfering with a network of Russian clandestine agents, he tweeted. In the shadows, the DGSI watches over our fundamental interests. †
Paris had already announced last Monday the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, already reiterating the formula according to which their activities “contradicted” French interests and specifying that the sanction was part of “a European approach”. The Quai d’Orsay told AFP that these six spies had been added to this previous list.
Many other European countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Austria, Poland, Greece or Croatia mass expelled Russian diplomats since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. The United States, for its part, sent twelve members of the Russian diplomatic mission to the UN in early March.
In some cases, these expulsions were officially designed in response to the outbreak of war in Ukraine by Russian troops and the abuses they have been accused of by Westerners. In a number of other cases, they were accompanied by charges of espionage.
