On Thursday, Russia declared an employee of the Romanian Embassy in Moscow “persona non grata”, in a move described as “a response to the Romanian side’s previous unfounded decision”, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement, as reported by Interfax. “On 27 August, Romania’s chargé d’affaires in Russia, Liliana Burda, was summoned to the State Protocol Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was handed a note from the ministry declaring the employee of the Romanian Embassy in Moscow persona non grata”, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release published on the agency’s website.
A response to a previous decision The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the decision was a response to a previous decision taken by the Romanian authorities. “This measure is a response to the Romanian side’s previous unfounded decision to declare a member of staff at the Russian Embassy in Bucharest persona non grata,” the Russian ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that, on Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation announced its decision to declare a member of staff at the Romanian Embassy in Moscow ‘persona non grata’.
A reciprocal measure The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that “this measure by the Russian side is a reciprocal one”, taken in response to the decision by the Romanian authorities on 27 July 2026 to declare a member of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bucharest “unacceptable”. During that period, “the Romanian Army shot down three Russian drones that had entered national territory without authorisation”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasises. In July, the Russian Embassy in Bucharest circulated a statement from the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, who rejected Romania’s allegations regarding the violation of its airspace by Russian drones and described the incidents as “staged”.
“We reject these new unfounded claims,” Zakharova said at the time, alleging that “the staged incidents and the accompanying propaganda campaign demonstrate the Romanian leadership’s attempt to cover up the consequences of the failure of its irresponsible policy of supporting the regime in Kyiv”. She then launched an attack on Romania, saying that “Bucharest’s unfriendly actions will not go unanswered”.