Officer with Russian Embassy in Latvia declared persona non grata

On January 21, 2008 Latvia had made the decision to expel the Russian official based on information obtained from its security services.

On January 24 the Latvian Foreign Ministry named the second secretary of the Russian Embassy in Riga, vice consul Alexander Rogozhin, as the diplomat expelled by Latvia on espionage charges. Latvia had earlier refused to disclose the official's name so as not to put any obstacles in the way of his departure from the country, a spokesman for the Latvian Constitution Protection Service said.

The Latvian Foreign Ministry said that Rogozhkin's activities were "incompatible with the status of a diplomat," and that the official should be declared a persona non grata in line with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Russia's Foreign Ministry dismissed the move as "unfriendly," warning that Russia could take retaliatory measures.

Latvia had made the decision to expel the Russian official based on information obtained from its security services.

Earlier, the Russian ambassador to Latvia, Viktor Kalyuzhny, told Latvia's LNT television station that the Russian embassy had not yet received any comments from Latvia on the expulsion. "I have a feeling that the reasons for the diplomat's expulsion are different from those announced earlier. In Latvia, which considers itself as an open and democratic country, there are too many secrets," Kalyuzhny said.

On January 25, in what is regarded as a tit-for-tat move, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Jan. 25 that it had expelled a prominent Latvian diplomat, giving the official until Jan. 27 to leave the country. The diplomat"s identity was later revealed to be Latvian Embassy Vice-Consul Peteris Podvinskis.

Russian authorities said Podvinskis was asked to leave for "operations incompatible with his status as a diplomat and damaging to Russia"s security interests." The move, however, is widely seen as retaliation for Latvia"s recent expulsion of Alexander Rogozhin.

Agentura.Ru March 15, 2011