Russia Closes Romanian Consulate in St. Petersburg Amid Diplomatic Retaliation
Moscow expels Romanian acting consul in response to Bucharest shutting down Russian consulate in Constanța after drone incident.
Russia has officially closed the Romanian consulate in St. Petersburg and declared Laurentius Constantiniu, the acting consul, persona non grata. This move was announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday, June 25, and is a direct response to Romania's closure of the Russian General Consulate in Constanța and the expulsion of its consul.
Diplomatic tit-for-tat amid rising tensions
The Russian Foreign Ministry described the measure as a reply to what it called the "unjustified" withdrawal by Bucharest of consent for the Russian consulate's operation in Constanța and the declaration of its head as persona non grata.
Earlier, Romanian President Nicolae Ciucă ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Constanța and declared the Russian consul persona non grata at the end of May. This action followed an incident involving a Russian drone in the Romanian city of Galați, located in eastern Romania.
On the night of May 29, a drone crashed onto the roof of a multi-storey residential building in Galați. The crash resulted in injuries to a 14-year-old boy and a 53-year-old woman. A fire broke out on the 10th floor of the building's apartment. The Romanian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the drone was of Russian origin. According to Romania's Emergency Response Service, the drone's explosive payload detonated entirely during the incident, injuring two people. Both were hospitalized, 70 residents were evacuated, and the fire was extinguished.
"The closure of the Romanian consulate in St. Petersburg and the expulsion of the acting consul is a direct response to Bucharest's closure of the Russian consulate in Constanța," stated the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The Romanian government characterized the drone incident as a violation of international law and subsequently requested NATO to bolster the country's air defense systems. According to Reuters, this event marked the first time that a Russian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used in the war against Ukraine impacted a densely populated area within a NATO member state.
In a reciprocal manner, Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Russia’s expulsion of the Romanian acting consul in St. Petersburg as predictable, given Bucharest's earlier decision to expel the Russian consul in Constanța after the drone incident.
This diplomatic escalation underscores the heightened tensions between Russia and NATO member states amid ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe, with diplomatic missions becoming focal points of retaliatory measures.
