Russia has expelled 10 diplomats from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in response to a similar move by the Baltic countries against Moscow earlier this month.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on March 29 that it was making the tit-for-tat move in retaliation for the “provocative and groundless expulsion of Russian Embassy staffers from these Baltic countries.”
It said that four staff members of the Lithuanian Embassy in Moscow were being expelled, along with three from the Latvian Embassy and three from the Estonian Embassy and the Pskov office of Estonia’s consulate-general in St. Petersburg.
The expelled staff were given 72 hours to leave Russia, the statement added.
The Baltic countries, all former Soviet republics who are now members of the European Union and NATO, announced the expulsion of a total of 10 Russia diplomats on March 18 because of Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which threatened to undermine security across the region.
