Russia will announce on Wednesday expulsion of head and member of staff of the NATO information office in Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday citing a source from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Isabelle Francois, the director of the NATO Information Office in Moscow who was also accredited with the Canadian Embassy in Russia as attache, and a worker of her office are likely to be deprived of diplomatic accreditation in Russia, according to a high-ranking official from the ministry.
No official comments are available on this information currently, said Interfax.
"We will officially announce our measures immediately after presenting a relevant note, for which the Canadian ambassador will be called to the Russian Foreign Ministry tomorrow," said the official.
"The note will say that the said persons are deprived of diplomatic accreditation in Russia as a response measure. We will refrain from declaring them personae non gratae," he said.
"We have not been initiators of such an approach. We have been forced to act this way," he added.
Earlier on Tuesday news agencies reported citing a diplomatic source that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dropped plans to attend the May NATO-Russia meeting at the ministerial level.
The decision is an apparent protest to the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from the NATO headquarters in Brussels.
"Due to the provocative actions against two employees at the Russian mission to NATO, there are no plans for a ministerial level meeting of the Russia-NATO Council (NRC)," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the source as saying.
Russia has informed NATO that the meeting within the framework of NRC is inappropriate, the Interfax news agency reported.
"We informed our partners of this decision at the meeting of the preparation council of the NATO-Russia Council this morning. We find a ministerial meeting inappropriate and insist on an urgent meeting at the level of ambassadors to discuss and resolve the conflict," Russia's permanent representative Dmitry Rogozin at NATO.
The meeting would be the first meeting between Russia and NATO at such a high level since the Russia-Georgia conflicts in last August, said Itar-Tass news agency.
Rogozin confirmed on Tuesday that the Belgian Foreign Ministry has formally notified Russia about withdrawing accreditation from the two Russian diplomats for allegedly espionage.
He earlier described the accusations of spying act as "far-fetched, irresponsible and provocative," and pledged firm reaction to the decision from Russia.
(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2009)
