The three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, announced on Friday April 23 that they were expelling a total of four Russian diplomats, in solidarity with the Czech Republic in diplomatic conflict with Moscow.
The Czech government accused the Russian secret service of being behind a deadly explosion at a weapons depot in the east of the country in 2014.
Prague has expelled 18 Russian diplomats and plans to expel dozens more, while Russia has expelled 20 Czech diplomats from Moscow.
"This decision shows our solidarity with our ally after an unprecedented and dangerous incident in the Czech Republic," Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said, announcing the expulsion of two Russian diplomats.
Lithuania has also indicated that it is ready to help the Czech embassy in Moscow carry out its functions after the expulsion of diplomats.
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics announced for his part the expulsion of a Russian diplomat, declaring that "Latvia will not tolerate subversive activities on its soil or that of its partners and allies".
The Estonian Foreign Ministry considered, for its part, referring to the explosion near the Czech village of Vrbetice, that "Russia's action violated international law, undermined European security and stability and was unacceptable".
Estonia has also indicated that it is expelling a Russian diplomat.
Slovakia, which formed a single country with the Czech Republic until 1993, said on Thursday it would expel three Russian diplomats, in solidarity with Prague and because of information obtained by its intelligence services.
False information "attacks"
On Thursday, the Baltic governments announced that they had recorded false news "attacks" after their MPs were contacted by someone posing as one of the main collaborators of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
"These attacks were aimed at spreading false information, discrediting the Russian opposition and undermining Baltic politicians' support for it," the foreign ministries said in a joint statement.
Alexei Navalny's assistant Leonid Volkov, who lives in Lithuania, believed that a real image of him could have been digitally manipulated during video calls with Baltic MPs to make it appear that he was speaking - an example of so-called "deepfake" technology.
With AFP
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