An employee of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow has been declared “persona non grata” against the background of a spy scandal. This is reported on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"The Estonian Ambassador to Russia, M. Laidre, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. He was strongly protested and handed a note stating that on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, “persona non grata”, an employee of the Estonian diplomatic mission in Moscow is announced, who is ordered to leave the territory of the Russian Federation within a week", – the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In early July, the FSB detained Mart Lyatte, the Estonian consul in St. Petersburg. He was caught red-handed while receiving secret documents from a Russian. The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Lyatte was at a working meeting at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute during his detention. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, after Lyatte was declared persona non grata due to activities incompatible with his diplomatic status, the Estonian side was warned that further escalation of the situation around this episode by Tallinn would lead to inevitable retaliatory steps. The ministry says that the appeals of the Russian side were not heeded, and the Russian diplomat in Estonia was declared an undesirable person.
& quot;We offer our Estonian partners to stop, not to complicate the situation that they have already aggravated to the limit even more. Otherwise, a new decisive response from the Russian Foreign Ministry will follow. At the same time, all responsibility for the deterioration of bilateral relations will fall entirely on the Estonian side, ” the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.
