Hundreds of Russian spies are expelled from the EU, with the exception of Hungary
Hungary, on the other hand, has not taken public action against any Russian chemists recently. All this is another manifestation of the Orbán government’s policy of special travel, which is openly classified as Russian-friendly from abroad, due to which Hungary seems to be increasingly excluded from Visegrád cooperation. readable on a portal.
As evidenced by the wave of expulsions following the poisoning of a former Russian double agent by Sergei Scriptal, certain staff in Russian embassies and consulates in the West, or at least suspects, are indeed carrying out secret service duties, but will endure their presence in peacetime. On the one hand, because they can gain useful intelligence by observing them, and on the other hand, because their expulsion leads to a confrontation with Moscow.
However, the war in Ukraine changed the formula, Russia became a hostile country and its spies became a direct threat. Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes also referred to this on Tuesday when she said that Russian diplomats had not been sentenced but had been expelled to protect national security.
So far, less than half of EU memberships have taken action against Russian agents endowed with diplomatic passports. Some countries have taken concerted action against Russian spies – on Tuesday, for example, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the Czech Republic will have to expel at the same time. According to Bloomberg, dozens of Russian spy diplomats are also being considered for repatriation in Berlin.