Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova’s comment on illegal acts against Russian diplomatic missions in Sweden
On January 12, Tobias Lorentzson, Charge d’Affaires at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry to hear a statement of protest to the inadequate response by the Swedish authorities to the unlawful actions of Swedish citizen Leonid Karnyushin aimed the Russian Embassy and trade mission in Sweden.
On January 6, Karnyushin crashed through a gate to a parking lot in a car and then rammed the garage gate of the office and residential building of the trade mission. On January 8, he drove a truck into the main gate of the mission’s administrative building, damaging it. On January 10, he illegally entered the grounds of the Embassy, and later on the same day, damaged the video surveillance equipment installed on the trade mission grounds. After each such incident, Karnyushin was detained by the Swedish police, who, however, released him after a few hours.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the Charge d’Affaires’ attention to the Swedish authorities’ position, as they seemed to dissociate themselves from ensuring the safety and security of Russian diplomatic missions. The Russian Embassy in Stockholm repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden asking to strengthen the physical security of Russian diplomatic facilities. However, no specific steps have been taken so far.
Karnyushin’s provocative actions are becoming more and more impudent and aggressive, which creates a direct threat to the lives and health of the diplomatic missions’ employees and their families, the Russian officials stressed.
The Swedish side was informed of the urgent need to take all appropriate measures to protect the premises of Russian diplomatic missions from any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the missions or impairment of their dignity in accordance with the obligations undertaken by Sweden under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.
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Consequences of the act of the terror against the office and residential building of the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in Sweden (January, 2018)
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Consequences of the act of the terror against the office and residential building of the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in Sweden (February, 2015)
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