Estonia expels Russian diplomat over interference and 'crimes against the state'

Estonia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it was expelling a Russian diplomat for interfering in its domestic affairs and several offences related to sanctions violations.

The ministry declared the first secretary of the Russian embassy in Tallinn persona non grata and ordered the diplomat to leave Estonia. The individual has not been named.

"The diplomat in question has been directly and actively involved in undermining the constitutional order and legal system of Estonia, as well as in dividing Estonian society," Estonia's Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a statement.

The diplomat had also been "contributing to the crimes against the state, including several offences related to sanctions violations," Tsahkna said.

He did not provide any detail about which sanctions had been violated. Russia has been hit by a wide range of sanctions by the West over its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

An Estonian citizen has been convicted of carrying out crimes in connection with the case, the ministry said, without any elaboration.

"The Russian embassy's ongoing interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Estonia must end," Tsahkna added.

"By expelling the diplomat, we are demonstrating that Estonia will not allow any actions orchestrated and organised by a foreign state on its territory."

In response to the expulsion, Moscow said it will take retaliatory measures.

"This is by no means the first hostile act on the part of Estonia. I have to say that we have even already gotten used to it," Alexey Fadeev, Russian foreign ministry deputy press and information director, was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.

"We will provide comment in due time as to which measures we will take with regard to Estonian diplomats."

As with the other Baltic countries, NATO and EU member Estonia's relations to neighbouring Russia have remained icy ever since independence in 1991.

Those ties have deteriorated significantly in recent years following Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Tallinn has been a strong supporter of Kyiv during the war.

Estonia and Russia downgraded their diplomatic relations and ordered their ambassadors to leave their respective embassies in 2023 in a tit-for-tat move.