Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu called on the EU countries to consider a new series of expulsions of Russian diplomats, accusing the employees of the Russian diplomatic mission working in Tallinn of being mainly involved in consular affairs.
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“In the context of the ongoing full-scale war of Russia in Europe against Ukraine, other countries of the Western community should think about this,” Reinsalu said.
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At the same time, he noted that the decision to do this or not is “an exclusively individual and sovereign.”
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According to the head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry, the expulsion of diplomats is “one of the ways to protest against Russian aggression, which also has some practical advantages.” At the same time, he referred to the fact that Russian diplomats in Europe allegedly did nothing to promote peace. He added that those diplomats who remained in Tallinn were mainly involved in consular affairs and used their social networks to spread “propaganda”.
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The idea of the head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry was already supported by Lithuania and the Czech Republic, whose Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky suspected that Russian special services were working under the cover of the diplomatic service. However, an unnamed Dutch diplomat asked if this had any meaning other than symbolic, and noted that “we want to keep our eyes open and keep our ears open in Russia, especially at a time like this.”
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Reinsalu also called for new sanctions against Russia. In his opinion, the next package of EU measures should provide for the disconnection of all remaining Russian banks from the Swift system, a ban on European firms from providing any financial services to Russian clients, and a ban on the import of Russian raw materials.
