Russia has the right to retaliate against the expulsion of its envoy from Montenegro and views Podgorica's action as unjustified and devoid of logic, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Saturday.

The Montenegrin Foreign Ministry declared on Friday that one Russian embassy employee was persona non grata for allegedly violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

"We reserve the right to retaliate in accordance with the generally accepted practice," Zakharova said in a statement published on the Russian foreign ministry's website.

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According to the spokesperson, Montenegro failed to justify the expulsion of the Russian diplomat, which revealed "the absence of reasons and logic for this demarche."

"We consider the lunge of the Montenegrin authorities as another episode of the hybrid campaign unleashed by the West and its satellites against Russia. We see this as unwillingness and inability of the official Podgorica to move away from the policy of the automatic adherence to such a destructive line — at the expense of international security and cooperation, as well as its own national interests," Zakharova added.

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Earlier in May, FIBA said in a statement that the national basketball team of Montenegro is to replace Russia at the Eurobasket 2022 tournament. 
 
As per the statement, “Russia is withdrawn from FIBA EuroBasket 2022. Montenegro, as the team with the best win-loss record (3-3) among those who didn’t advance from the EuroBasket Qualifiers, will replace Russia in the tournament and will compete in Group A in Tbilisi." 
 
FIBA added that Russia and Belarus will be withdrawn from the European national team and club competitions. 

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