According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the Finnish side's statements that Russia allegedly violated the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by freezing the accounts of Finnish diplomatic missions in Russia are absurd, since the Finnish authorities were the first to take such steps.
"Our actions are a mirror response to similar restrictions on Russian foreign missions in this Nordic country, which can only use an account in one of the Finnish banks," the agency quoted her as saying.
At the same time, she added that other restrictions were applied to the Russian side, in particular, in fact, a prohibitive commission of € 5 thousand for any operation.
Zakharova stressed that Russia has repeatedly warned the Finnish side about retaliatory measures if all relevant restrictive measures on the part of Finland continue.
"And we said that measures can be both symmetrical and asymmetrical," she said.
Earlier, the press secretary of the Russian leader, Dmitry Peskov, called the blocking of the accounts of the Finnish diplomatic mission a response to the unfriendly actions of Finland.