MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Moscow had braced for Estonia’s decision to cut the Russian embassy’s personnel, Russian Ambassador to Tallinn Vladimir Lipayev said on Tuesday.
"Naturally, we were ready for such a step by the Estonian side because we anticipated this back in the summer, when the Estonians stopped issuing visas to our rotating diplomats," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
According to Lipayev, a Russian charge d’affaires in Estonia will be appointed in due time. "There are no problems with that," he added.
He also said that eight diplomats and 23 technical personnel will stay in Tallinn. "This is practically a 50-percent cut," he noted. "The Estonians reduced as many people as possible and our work, especially in what concerns consular services, is at risk."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it was downgrading its diplomatic ties with Estonia to the level of charge d’affaires in response to Estonia’s radical reduction in the amount of staff at the Russian Embassy in Tallinn. Estonian Ambassador to Russia Margus Laidre was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where he received a strong protest over the actions of the Estonian authorities and obliged him to leave Moscow by February 7, 2023.
Later, the Estonian Foreign Ministry announced that Russian Ambassador to Tallinn Vladimir Lipayev would have to exit the Baltic country at the same time as the Estonian ambassador is set to leave Moscow.