Russia on Monday ordered the expulsion of Estonia’s ambassador to Moscow and reduced relations with Tallinn to chargé d’affaires level, citing “total Russophobia” in Estonia, Russia’s state agency TASS reported.
The move follows the expulsion of 21 Russian diplomats and other personnel from the embassy of the Russian Federation in Tallinn in early January.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that it is a retaliatory measure.
“Estonia has taken another unfriendly step to radically shrink the Russian embassy in Tallinn, confirming the line for the collapse of relations between our countries”is in the statement.
The ministry led by Serguei Lavrov announced that it had summoned the Estonian ambassador, Margus Laidre. to communicate a “strong protest” from Moscow about the “actions of the Estonian authorities”.
He also accused Estonia’s leaders of “deliberately destroying the whole set of relations with Russia”.
“Total Russophobia, the cultivation of hostility towards our country, has been elevated by Talin to the rank of state policy,” the Russian diplomacy said, quoted by the US agency AP.
The Estonian diplomat will have to leave Russia by February 7, the Russian ministry said.
“We will continue to respond to the hostile measures of the Estonian leadership,” he added, according to the French agency AFP.
Estonia has reduced its bilateral relations with Moscow “to the bare minimum” since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said on Jan. 11.
The Estonian government justified the expulsion of Russian officials with the aim of “achieving equality of embassy staff”, setting the number of Russian representations at eight diplomats and 15 administrative and technical staff.
The so-called three Baltic Sea republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have denounced Moscow’s threat to the region since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year.
These three countries were once part of the Soviet Union, the Russian-led Eastern Bloc whose collapse in 1991 gave rise to several independent nations, including the three Baltic republics and Ukraine.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are now part of the European Union (EU) and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
With 45,228 square kilometers, about half the area of Portugal, Estonia has just over two million inhabitants.
The war in Ukraine, which has lasted 11 months this Monday, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Ukraine has resisted Russian forces with the armaments sent by its Western allies, including the EU member states and the United States.
The number of civilian and military casualties is unknown, but several sources, including the UN, have admitted it will be high.
The conflict also spawned about eight million refugees, more than 66,074 of whom are registered in Estonia, 35,212 in Latvia and 73,040 in Lithuania, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Source: DN
