Russia blames ‘hostile’ Baltic countries for severing of ties

LONDON

Russia accused Baltic countries on Sunday of conduct that led to them severing their relations with Moscow and threatened to respond with asymmetric measures.

The Kremlin blamed the "hostility" of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for the severing of ties.

"Because of the openly hostile line of Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn, all interstate, interdepartmental, regional and sectoral ties with Russia have been severed," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the RIA state news agency.

She added that "unfriendly states are doing everything in their power to complicate relations."

Without going into the details of what the three countries had allegedly done, Zakharova warned that Moscow would respond.

"We will also respond to the hostile actions of the Baltic states with asymmetrical measures, primarily in the economic and transit spheres," she said.

Zakharova pointed out that the transit of Russian goods having been redirected to ports in northwestern Russia has had a very negative effect on the Baltic nations’ economies.

She added that the Kremlin never seeks a complete discontinuation of diplomatic relations.

"Russia will never completely sever ties with other countries, in an attempt to maintain the possibility of dialogue," she said adding that cutting diplomatic ties would be extremely unfortunate for Russian-speaking people living in the Baltic countries, including Russian citizens.

She stressed that stopping the activities of diplomatic missions would amount to “leaving our citizens and hundreds of thousands of compatriots at the mercy of arbitrary action by the police."

Zakharova emphasized that Moscow will continue putting diplomatic pressure on the Baltics.

In response, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said the Kremlin severed relations with the Baltics by invading Ukraine.

"We have reduced mutual relations to the bare minimum level as Russia sullied its relationship with the West by launching a war of aggression against Ukraine, in violation of international law and the sovereignty of states," Tsahkna was quoted as saying by national broadcaster ERR.

"Estonia will continue to make diplomatic efforts to see the war ended and for Ukraine to have the opportunities and means it needs to kick out the aggressor," he added.

Last week, Baltic ministers accused Russia of violating air traffic rules when two Finnair flights had to divert back to Helsinki after GPS interference prevented them from landing at an airport in the southern part of Estonia.

They said the suspected Russian jamming of GPS flight systems has become “too dangerous to ignore.”

Tsahkna described the incident as a "hybrid attack" by Russia.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were also among the countries that recently expressed concern over what they called Russian espionage, NATO said last week.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys and members of the previous Latvian parliament were all placed on a wanted list by Moscow for removing Soviet-era monuments in their countries.