Diplomats

According to an order signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the government has decided to close the Polish consular agency in Smolensk. The Russian Foreign Ministry was instructed to notify Warsaw about this.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Russian Ambassadors to Latvia and Estonia Mikhail Vanin and Vladimir Lipayev from their posts. Two presidential decrees on this issue were published on Friday, March 31, on the official Internet portal of legal information.

The Estonian Foreign Ministry summoned the charge d'affaires of the Russian Embassy to hand him a diplomatic note on the expulsion of an employee of the Russian embassy from the country.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken proposed to strengthen the role of diplomats in determining the future borders of Ukraine, stressing that any peaceful decisions should not be taken without taking into account the opinion of Kiev.

The authorities of Saudi Arabia and Iran signed an agreement on the resumption of diplomatic relations following the talks in Beijing. The mutual opening of embassies should take place within the next two months.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (pictured) said that Russia will not allow the West to "blow up gas pipelines again" and will refuse to orient its energy policy towards the West in the future.

Prague has revoked the work permit of the Consulates General of the Russian Federation in Karlovy Vary and Brno.

Russia's diplomatic missions in Turkey and Syria have not yet received information about Russians affected by earthquakes on the territory of these states.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Feng said that the destruction of a Chinese scientific balloon that accidentally flew into the United States caused damage to relations between the two countries.

The Austrian authorities are expelling four representatives of the diplomatic corps of the Russian Federation from the country.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the lowering of the level of diplomatic relations with Estonia as a response to the actions of Tallinn. The level of diplomatic representation on both sides is lowered to the charge d'affaires. Estonian Ambassador Margus Laidre has been ordered to leave Russia by February 7.

The diplomat said that the call concerned the tragedy in Dnepropetrovsk.

Former US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan, in an interview with Foreign Policy, expressed skepticism about reports of health problems with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also noted that American intelligence has repeatedly made mistakes in such assessments.

The Russian Foreign Ministry declared the Lithuanian diplomat persona non grata after the expulsion of an employee of the Russian Embassy in Vilnius from the republic.