The Diplomat
A week after being forced to present his Letters of Credence to the King in semi-clandestinity, the new ambassador of the Russian Federation in Madrid, Yuri Klimenko, was summoned for the first time on Thursday to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to convey a protest from the Spanish Government.
Spain’s unease is a consequence of what it considers to be continuous ‘attacks’ on Spain from the embassy’s social media accounts and, more specifically, the publication last Wednesday on Twitter of a video insinuating the presence of Spanish military personnel in Ukraine.
When the presence of the video was noticed, the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ángeles Moreno, called the ambassador to summon him to her office and ask him to immediately withdraw the tweet. Following this call, the embassy withdrew the video, which was accessible for several hours, and which showed soldiers speaking in Spanish, but without specifying either the place or the date of the conversation. The images were accompanied by the words of the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, in which she said: “Never, never, no troops from a NATO country, and Spain is one of them, are going to participate in the war in Ukraine. Never, never. I want to say it very clearly, very clearly”.
Following the publication of the video, Defence denied that there were Spanish soldiers in Ukraine and added: “This tweet is one of the many disinformation weapons used by Russia”.
On Thursday morning, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ángeles Moreno conveyed to Klimenko the Spanish government’s “energetic rejection” of such publications and initiatives.
The new ambassador, who took note of the Spanish complaint to transmit it to Moscow, arrived in Madrid in December 2022, but was not able to present his credentials to the King until last Thursday. The Government, given the war situation in Ukraine, decided that Klimenko would not go to the Royal Palace, with the pomp that accompanies the ceremony of presentation of Credentials by ambassadors, including the journey in a vintage carriage from the historic headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but that he would make the presentation at the Zarzuela Palace, without press or cameras that could capture the moment.
