Estonia expels Russian diplomat for war-justifying propaganda

Estonia has instructed the Russian chargé d’affaires to leave the country before 29 March, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The diplomat in question has been directly and actively involved in undermining Estonia’s security and constitutional order, spreading propaganda that justifies Russia’s military actions and dividing Estonian society,” the statement reads.

The ministry explained that the expelled diplomat in Consul Alexander Savinov. “In itself, this does not mean that Russia does not have the right to send a new diplomat to replace him, so that the number of diplomats would correspond to the maximum number of embassy staff, which stands at eight. This is the current state of affairs,” Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry retaliated by saying that an Estonian diplomat would be expelled.

Moscow announced that it was downgrading the level of diplomatic relations with Estonia and instructed the Estonian ambassador to leave the country on 23 January. Chargé d’affaires are overseeing political communications between the countries. In turn, Tallinn ordered Russian Ambassador Vladimir Lipayev to leave Estonia.