Latvia announced on Monday that it had asked the Russian ambassador to leave Latvian territory and decided to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Moscow, hours after Estonia made a similar decision, AFP reported.

Latvian authorities have begun dismantling a huge monument dedicated to the victory of the USSR in the Second World War over the Nazi regime, located in RigaPhoto: Roman Koksarov / AP / Profimedia

“The Russian ambassador will leave Latvia no later than February 24, 2023. Similarly, the ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to Russia will leave Russia by February 24,” the Latvian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to the continuation of the conflict in Ukraine. and “solidarity with Estonia and Lithuania”.

Russia announced on Monday that it was expelling Estonia’s ambassador, condemning Tallinn’s “total Russophobia” after the Baltic country asked it to reduce its diplomatic presence on its territory, Reuters reported

“The ambassador of the Republic of Estonia must leave Russia on February 7, 2023,” said the message of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which lowered the level of diplomatic relations to those responsible for business.

The move, announced by Moscow on Monday, came after Estonia’s Foreign Ministry notified the Russian ambassador on January 11 of the need to reduce the number of Russian diplomats to eight by February 1.

“The purpose of the decision is to achieve parity in the number of embassies’ employees, which means that the number of positions in the representations of Russia and Estonia in the capitals of the countries will be the same,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tallinn reported. in a press release.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Urmas Reinsalu, said at the time that in view of the war in Ukraine, the Russian embassy does not contribute to the development of relations between Tallinn and Moscow, and therefore there is “no reason” for the embassy to work in its current composition.

The three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – are among the NATO members who are strongly demanding that Germany supply Ukraine with its Leopard tanks to support Kyiv in the face of a Russian invasion.

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