Three more countries “united with the Czech” expelled Russian diplomats

As of April 23, there were four EU allies expelling Russian diplomats for ‘solidarity with the Czechs’, namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.

Three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have expelled a total of four Russian diplomats to show solidarity with the Czech Republic (Czech) in diplomatic retaliation for alleged Russian secret involvement. ammunition warehouse explosions in Czech, news agency AFP said. On April 17, the Czech Republic accused the Russian Secret Service of being behind a fatal explosion at an arsenal in eastern Czechs in 2014 and thus expelled 18 Russian diplomats. This decision led to a series of “reciprocal” responses between Prague and Moscow. The Czech Republic has called on allies in the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Bloc (NATO) to unite and support the decision of the Prague government. On April 23, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced his decision to expel two staff of the Russian Embassy in Vilnius for “behavior inconsistent with diplomatic status” and ordered them to leave Lithuania within seven days. Russian Embassy in Riga (Latvia). Photo: TASS The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry stressed that “this decision shows our solidarity (ie the Vilnius government) with our ally after an unprecedented and dangerous incident in the Czech Republic”. Lithuania also offered to support the Czech Embassy in Moscow in carrying out its functions after Czech diplomats were expelled by Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that by May 31st, the Russian Embassy in Prague and the Czech Embassy in Moscow will only maintain 7 diplomatic staff, 25 technical and administrative staff, as well as right to hire up to 19 employees who are nationals of the host country. Thus, the number of Czech diplomats in Moscow must be reduced by 16, while the number of Russian diplomats in Prague is only one-sixth of the current number. On the same day 23-4, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics announced the expulsion of a staff member of the Russian Embassy in Riga. The Latvian Foreign Ministry explained that this was a move to show “solidarity with the Czech”, based on “information provided by Latvian authorities” and was made after consulting with allies. EU and NATO. And the Estonian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of a Russian diplomat who the Tallinn government said was behaving inconsistent with diplomatic principles. Estonia emphasized that it was “an expression of solidarity with the Czechs” and criticized the actions of the Russian secret service as the Czech accused it of being “unacceptable”. In response to the decision of the Latvian Foreign Ministry, the Russian Embassy in Riga said that this “unfriendly action” would “have the most negative impact on the development of Russian-Latvian relations”. The Russian diplomatic delegation also announced that Moscow would soon take measures to respond, according to the news agency TASS . The Russian embassy in Tallinn was also dissatisfied by Estonia’s decision, saying that the decision to expel Russian diplomats could undermine efforts to improve Russia-Estonian relations. The Russian diplomatic delegation to Lithuania does not appear to have commented on the decision of the Vilnius government yet. Before the three Baltic countries, Slovakia expelled three members of the Russian Embassy in Bratislava to show solidarity with its neighbor Czech.