The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in MoscowMOSCOW, Mar 29 Latvian Ambassador to Moscow Maris Riekstins said that the Russian Foreign Ministry announced to the ambassadors of the Baltic countries retaliatory measures for the expulsion of Russian diplomats.
"We will inform our capitals. They said that the Russian side had decided to declare a certain number of our diplomats persona non grata", he told reporters.
Rikstins noted that he was not surprised by this decision, expressing regret that due to the situation in Ukraine relations entered a «black period.» He did not name the number of diplomats expelled from Russia. Three of the ambassadors of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania left the office, where they stayed for about 45 minutes. On March 18, Latvia and Estonia expelled three employees of the Russian embassy, and Lithuania — four. They were accused of activities «contrary to diplomatic status», as well as «undermining the security» of the countries in which they worked. On the eve of 45 employees of the diplomatic mission of Poland also left the country at the request of Warsaw. The North Macedonian Foreign Ministry also declared five Russian diplomats persona non grata. Russia usually responds symmetrically to such actions. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on the «unfriendly steps» of Skopje, noted that Moscow «will be forced to take retaliatory measures.» from Russia in 2021-2022