Russia will expel an Albanian diplomat as a counter-response for the ousting of Russian diplomat from Tirana two weeks prior.

Russian News Agency, RIA reports that the decision was announced by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who gave the Albanian diplomat an ultimatum to leave Russian territory within 72-hours.

The diplomat in question is First Secretary, Jonida Drogu, who was declared “persona non grata” as a direct response to the declaration issued around a month ago by Albanian authorities towards Alexey Krivosheev.

Last January, the Albanian minister of Foreign Affairs released a “persona non-grata” declaration on a Russian diplomat for continuously violating COVID-19 measures.

Russia considered this argument a “pretext” and called it a “provocation”, while warning to counter-respond.

Meanwhile the Russian embassy in Tirana reacted right after the verdict to expel Russian diplomat Alexey Krivosheev, by saying that the Albanian government has no grounds for this claim.

Albanian Foreign Affairs minister has replied to these accusations by saying that they had received repeated complaints and denounces in Krivosheev’s address and despite various warnings, the diplomat hadn’t reflected and would continue to act with negligence.

Asked by Euronews Albania, Prime Minster Edi Rama had announced that the expulsion of Russian diplomat, Alexey Krivosheev from Albania, wouldn’t be a cause for tensions between both countries.

“I have no comments regarding this and I don’t see any reason as to why we would have tensions between us. This is an unfortunate event the reasons for which have already been made public. There is no reason to be alarmed as there won’t be any escalation of conflicts between both countries”, said the PM.