Next month, Russia will start expelling German diplomats, teachers and employees of German cultural institutions, the German Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

The Ministry sharply criticized Russia, calling the upcoming expulsion a "unilateral, unjustified and incomprehensible decision."

According to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the expulsion will affect several hundred German civil servants, including teachers and employees of the Goethe Institute, which promotes German culture and language abroad.
This comes as "a tit-for-tat response" after Germany expelled Russian diplomats earlier this year "to reduce the presence of intelligence services."