Romania sends Russian diplomat home in response to Moscow espionage allegations

The Romanian authorities have answered to the recent espionage accusations and the banishment from Russia of a Romanian diplomat by declaring a Russia diplomat a 'persona non-grata' in exchange. The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry has condemned Russia's serious infringement of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations when it detained the Romanian diplomat in Moscow. The ministry has also expressed its disagreement on how the issue was publicly presented. The Russian diplomat, who is working for the Russian Embassy in Bucharest on the same position as the Romanian diplomat sent home from Moscow – has 48 hours to leave Romania. The Vienna Convention, which regulates the diplomatic relations, states the diplomat is protected and cannot be detained, nor arrested. Once a diplomat is declared a 'persona non-grata', the person has 48 hours to leave the country, a period during which the diplomat is covered by the immunity. Romanian diplomat Gabriel Grecu, who was working in Romania’s embassy in Moscow, has been detained for being allegedly involved in the stealth of secret military information in Russia, according to Reuters, quoting Russia’s Security Service (FSB). The FSB, successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said the diplomat was caught “red-handed while attempting to obtain secret information,” a spokesman for the FSB said by telephone, according to Reuters. Gabriel Grecu was declared persona non-grata in Russia and had two days to leave the Russian territory.