Russia closes consulates of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia

On April 21st, Russia closed the consulates of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia on its territory, declared their employees persona non grata and required them to leave the country.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement : “We summoned the ambassadors of Latvia, Maris Rekstenich, and Estonia, MargosLaidri, and Chargé d’Affaires of the Lithuanian Embassy in Moscow, Virginia Ombrasini, and  protested against the unfriendly steps of those countries represented in closing the Russian consulates general in the cities of Klaipeda in Lithuania, Liepaja and Daugavpilis in Latvia and Narva in Estonia, in addition to the office of the Consular Affairs Division of the Russian Embassy in the Estonian city of Tartu.

The ministry added: “Based on the principle of reciprocity and taking into account that these countries provided military support to the Kiev regime and provided them with cover for the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the residents of Donbass and Ukraine, we announced our decision to withdraw our consent to the activities of the Latvian Consulate General in St. Pskov and Lithuanian in St Petersburg.”

The ministry continued: “The heads and other consular officials of the aforementioned Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian consular missions were declared persona non grata, with consular officials and members of the administrative and technical staff who do not hold Russian citizenship declared unacceptable and we asked them to leave our territory in the same period that the Baltic states set for Russian diplomats, who have recently decided to deport them.”

O. al-Mohammad