TALLINN, July 6. /TASS/. Estonia’s foreign ministry has condemned the detention of its consul in St. Petersburg, Mart Matte, as a provocation, the ministry’s spokesperson, Aari Lemmik, said on Tuesday.
"Our reaction is the condemnation of Russia’s actions," the ERR news portal quoted him as saying. "It is illegal, provocative, and harmful to the European Union’s member states and the European Union in general. It is in Estonia’s interests to have good neighbors and constructive relations with its neighbors."
According to Lemmik, Latte was detained by Russian FSB officers after a working meeting at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. "The accusations are groundless. It is yet another example showing that Russia is not interested in maintaining friendly relations with neighboring countries," he claimed.
"From Estonia’s point of view, incidents such as this one demonstrate that Russia has opted for a path of confrontation instead of a constrictive approach to reverse the negative tendencies in relations with the European Union," the Estonia diplomat noted.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) told TASS earlier in the day that Estonian consul Mart Latte was detained in St. Petersburg while receiving classified documents from a Russian national. "Such activities are incompatible with the status of a diplomatic worker and are openly hostile in respect of Russia," FSB said, adding that the foreign diplomat will be subject to measures in accordance with international law.