Moscow demands safety for its diplomats in Baltic States

MOSCOW - The authorities in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia must take steps necessary to protect the Russian diplomatic and consular missions and staff, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

"Over the past few days our diplomatic missions have received repeated calls with all kinds of threat, and there has also been a rise in disruptive activity, including rallies in the immediate proximity of our embassies and journalists in those countries openly calling for a 'siege' of our diplomatic missions. In fact, such activity already started around Russia's embassy in Vilnius, where a Russian diplomat was physically assaulted and attempts were made to harass our ambassador," Zakharova claimed in a comment on Saturday.

"We warn Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn of their responsibility for any consequences of anti-Russia psychosis they started. We demand that the competent authorities in these countries take urgent steps to protect the Russian diplomatic and consular missions and their employees strictly in accordance with the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, and on Consular Relations, 1963,'' she said.

Meanwhile, in response to Russia's announcement claiming that Russian diplomats are being harassed in the Baltic states, Estonian Minister of the Interior Kristian Jaani said that the claims are false information generated by Putin's regime, Postimees reports.

Jaani reiterated that the war against Ukraine is being waged by Putin, not the Russian people. There are people of various nationalities living in Estonia to whom Putin has caused suffering with his war, he added.

"The Estonian society is all of us -- Estonians, Russians, Ukrainians and many other nations. All the representatives of these various peoples living in Estonia are our people. We really need to take care of each other at this time, understand each other and jointly and peacefully oppose Putin's war. The false information by Putin's regime is meant to polarize us and reduce our sense of security, reduce our power among all the nations of the world who oppose Putin's war," the minister said.

Jaani said that Estonia takes very seriously ensuring the safety of both residents of Estonia as well as other states' diplomats in the country.

"All peoples of Estonia -- let us pay great attention to not letting Putin and his henchmen provoke conflicts on the basis of ethnicity that they can use against us. Let us be united -- it's where our strength lies!"