Estonia tells Russia to reduce number of diplomats in Tallinn

VILNIUS (Reuters) -Estonia has told Russia to reduce the number of diplomats at its embassy in Tallinn by February, the Baltic country’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

It said in a statement Russia should cut the number of diplomats to eight, equivalent to the number of Estonian diplomats in Moscow. The Russian embassy in Tallinn lists 17 diplomats on its website.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Estonia has expelled three diplomats.

“In light of the fact that during the war of aggression, the staff of the Russian embassy is not engaged in advancing Estonian-Russian relations, it is our view that there are no grounds for the current size of the Russian embassy,” the ministry said on Wednesday.

Moscow said the expulsions were the latest example of the Baltic state’s “Russophobia”.

“It is long been no secret that Estonia is one of the most hostile states towards Russia,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Russophobia has been elevated to the level of an official doctrine,” she said.

Moscow said it would respond to any “hostile actions” taken by Tallinn, without providing details.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius and Jake Cordell; Editing by Anna Ringstrom, Alex Richardson and Bernadette Baum)