MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/. Russia will respond with both mirror and asymmetrical measures to any provocations by the Baltic states, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second European Department Sergey Belyaev said in an interview with TASS.

According to the diplomat, diplomatic relations with the three Baltic states have been downgraded to a charge d’affaires level, while Russia asked the Estonian ambassador to leave after Tallinn had halved the number of personnel at the Russian embassy in Estonia.

"Today, our diplomatic missions in the Baltic states are operating in extremely difficult circumstances," Belyaev lamented. What he said were illegitimate restrictions imposed by Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn on the banking sector only aggravate the situation. "Lithuania has halted the issuance of diplomatic and business visas since last summer which made a regular rotation of employees impossible. Naturally, we <…> have been taking both mirror and asymmetrical measures in response to these provocations," he said.

Despite this "extreme Russophobia and hostile atmosphere," employees of Russian diplomatic missions continue to "perform their duty with dignity" as they defend the interests of the country and Russian citizens living in the Baltic countries, the senior Russian diplomat concluded.