Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on the Slovenian authorities’ unfriendly actions

On April 5, citing a far-fetched pretext, the Slovenian authorities ordered a fivefold reduction in the diplomatic staff of the Russian Embassy in Ljubljana and made other unprecedented demands, including ones that run counter to provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, according to which the host state is to provide everything that a diplomatic mission may need to perform its functions.

We regard these steps as extremely irresponsible and unfriendly. They reflect the anti-Russian position adopted by the current Government of Slovenia, which sometimes crosses the line into blatant Russophobia. We see Ljubljana’s recent unlawful decisions to terminate a number of bilateral cooperation treaties, primarily in the cultural and humanitarian sphere, in the same light. Clearly, these steps are designed to systematically destroy Russian-Slovenian relations, which turn 30 this year.

Responsibility for the inevitable consequences of the ongoing anti-Russian hysteria will fall entirely on the current Government of Slovenia, which, in an effort to please its foreign mentors and to the detriment of Slovenes’ national interests, is literally tearing up the centuries-old ties of friendship between our peoples.

We reserve the right to take political and diplomatic measures in response, such as limiting the total number of staff of the Embassy of Slovenia in Moscow, including local staff, among them citizens of Russia and third countries. Such precedents are known to exist.

We demand that Ljubljana strictly comply with its international commitments and fully ensure the security and proper conditions for the normal functioning of the Russian Embassy in Slovenia.