The group of Baltic countries, together with Poland, is confirmed as the front line in the confrontation with Russia. Moscow has expelled the Estonian ambassador from the country, who accused her of pursuing a policy of “total Russophobia”. and the inevitable equal and opposite reaction from Tallinn was joined by that of Latviawhich also asked the Russian ambassador to leave the country.
Lithuania, on the other hand, expelled the Moscow ambassador in April last year after Ukraine accused Russian forces of the massacre of civilians in Bucha.
“The Estonian regime got what it deserved,” wrote the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on her Telegram channel. Maria Sakharov, in which he commented on the decision to expel the ambassador from Tallinn, which provoked a reaction from Estonia and Latvia. Estonia’s head of mission in Moscow, Margus Laidre, is scheduled to leave Russia by February 7. His Russian counterpart in Tallinn must leave Estonia by the same date.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries are downgraded to chargé d’affaires. The deadline chosen by Latvia for the departure of the Russian ambassador is February 24, the first anniversary of the start of what Moscow is calling the special military operation in Ukraine. But that was defined by the Riga government “A Brutal Attack”who explains that he has reduced diplomatic relations to the level of plenipotentiary out of solidarity with Estonia.
In announcing the expulsion of the Estonian ambassador, the Russian Foreign Ministry blamed the Tallinn government “elevated Russophobia to state policy status”.
The latest episode denounced by Moscow is Estonia’s decision to reduce Russia’s diplomatic presence in the country to 8 officials and 15 employees, motivated by the need to equalize the presence of its representatives in Russia.
But from the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the three Baltic countries, militarily occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and territories of the USSR until 1991, have been among the most determined to demand a hard line from the West against Moscow.
Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, among others, are urging Germany to allow its Leopard tanks to be shipped to Ukraine. And Tallinn has just announced that it will hand over all of its armed forces’ 155mm howitzers to Kyiv.
In April last year, the Presidents of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, as well as the President of Poland, traveled together to Kyiv to meet their Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the same month, Russia and the three Baltic countries ordered each other’s consulates to close, while Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda sounded the alarm over a “possible” Moscow attack on his country.