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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Russia expels Canadian diplomats | Russia expels Canadian diplomats |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Russia has expelled two Canadian diplomats working for Nato's Moscow office in response to an "unfriendly act" by the military alliance. | Russia has expelled two Canadian diplomats working for Nato's Moscow office in response to an "unfriendly act" by the military alliance. |
| Last week Nato expelled two Russian envoys from its headquarters in Brussels, reportedly due to spying. | Last week Nato expelled two Russian envoys from its headquarters in Brussels, reportedly due to spying. |
| The diplomatic spat came as Nato began military exercises in Georgia, seen by Russia as a "provocation". | |
| Last August Russian and Georgian forces clashed in a brief war over breakaway pro-Moscow Georgian territories. | Last August Russian and Georgian forces clashed in a brief war over breakaway pro-Moscow Georgian territories. |
| Nine months after the war in Georgia relations between Russia and Nato were supposed to be getting back on track, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow. | Nine months after the war in Georgia relations between Russia and Nato were supposed to be getting back on track, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow. |
| Instead, they have taken a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse, our correspondent reports. | |
| 'Counterproductive' | 'Counterproductive' |
| Ottawa's ambassador to Russia, Ralph Lysyshyn, was summoned to the foreign ministry where he was told Moscow felt it had been forced into the move. | Ottawa's ambassador to Russia, Ralph Lysyshyn, was summoned to the foreign ministry where he was told Moscow felt it had been forced into the move. |
| "In response to the unfriendly act on Nato's part... the Russian side has taken the forced decision to revoke the diplomatic accreditation" of the two Nato staff, a foreign ministry statement said. | |
| The Canadian diplomats being expelled are the director of the Nato information office in Moscow, Isabelle Francois, and her deputy. | |
| The Canadian embassy in Moscow said the decision to expel its diplomats was "counterproductive". | The Canadian embassy in Moscow said the decision to expel its diplomats was "counterproductive". |
| "Canada strongly regrets the decision," embassy spokesman Nicholas Brousseau told the Associated Press news agency. | |
| "Canada and Nato allies have been seeking to re-engage Russia." | |
| The AFP news agency quoted a Nato source in Brussels as saying the alliance regretted Russia's action, which it saw as "unfortunate" and "counterproductive". | |
| The latest round of tit-for-tat expulsions stems from a spy scandal in Estonia in which thousands of pages of sensitive data were handed to Russian agents. | |
| Exercises begin | |
| Cooperative Longbow 09, a Nato-led coordination and command exercise, began on Wednesday outside the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. | |
| A further exercise, Cooperative Lancer 09, is planned before 1 June. | |
| About 220 troops are involved in the first exercise and 400 in the second, and neither involves tanks, Reuters news agency reports. | |
| Nato says both exercises were planned before last summer's war in Georgia. | |
| Four non-Nato states originally due to take part have pulled out. Armenia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Serbia all have close links to Russia. |