The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of 7 diplomats from the embassies of Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in Moscow;
In response to a similar procedure.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that it summoned the Slovak ambassador and directed him to a strong protest against what it described as the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Slovakia on ridiculous charges, and informed him of Russia's decision to expel 3 diplomats from the Slovak Embassy in Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, and expressed to them its rejection of what it called the course of the three Baltic countries hostile to Russia.
The Foreign Ministry said it had informed the ambassadors of the expulsion of two diplomats from the Lithuanian embassy, and one from each of the embassies of Estonia and Latvia.
The ministry gave 3 diplomats from Slovakia, two from Lithuania, one from Latvia and one from Estonia a week to leave Russia.
Russia accused the four countries of showing "false solidarity" with the Czech Republic, which ordered most of the Russian diplomatic staff in Prague to leave the country last week, after it said Russian spies were behind a 2014 explosion in an ammunition depot.
Russia rejected the accusation, saying it was preposterous.
Moscow and Prague are locked in their biggest dispute since the end of the communist era in 1989. The two suspects in the 2014 ammunition depot bombing were reportedly from the 29155 Special Unit of Russian Military Intelligence.
Aggressive diplomacy
In a statement Wednesday, the Lithuanian ministry responded to the expulsion of its diplomats, expressing hope that Moscow would stop its "aggressive diplomacy", stop "blaming other countries for the current escalation", and take into account the "signals" sent by the West.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the "absurdity" Prague's accusations.
And Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused - for his part - the Czech Republic of violating international agreements "by storing banned anti-personnel mines in this warehouse.
And Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacic appealed to the member states of the European Union and NATO to expel Russian diplomats in solidarity with his country in the face of Moscow.
This crisis comes at a time when Western capitals have doubled in recent weeks the expulsion of Russian diplomats on the background of accusations of espionage, cyber attacks and interference in the elections.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry in Romania announced that it would expel a Russian diplomat, and the ministry stated that Alexei Grichayev, assistant military attache at the Russian embassy in Bucharest, would be considered "persona non grata, in light of his activities and movements contrary to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations."