The diplomat, identified as Margarita Atanasov, serves as Canada’s First Secretary of the immigration section at the Canadian Embassy in the Russian capital. She is to leave Russia within 14 days, CTV’s Mercedes Stephenson reported.
Atanasov’s expulsion from Russia comes about two weeks after Canada expelled assistant military attaché Lieut.-Col. Yury Bezler from Ottawa.
“It’s not uncommon to see this sort of tit-for-tat, one-for-one,” Stephenson said.
Georgiy Mamedov, Russia’s ambassador to Canada, was asked about the move to expel Atanasov after he delivered a speech at the Empire Club in Toronto.
“Because first it was our guy who was expelled from Ottawa,” Mamedov told reporters as they followed him out of the room. “So it’s a response.”
Canada has announced a series of sanctions over the last several weeks in response to Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine. Canada has cancelled previously scheduled joint military and economic programs with Russia, and expelled Russian soldiers that had been training here.
CTV
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