#Russian #Ministry #Foreign #Affairs #threatens #Baltic #States
“We will also respond to white-hostile actions primarily with economic and transit measures,” Russian media quoted Zakharova as saying.
Zakharova claimed that the retaliatory steps taken by Moscow, including the reorientation of cargo flows to Russia’s northwestern ports, “had an extremely negative impact on the revenues of the Baltic states’ budgets.”
The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry added that the Kremlin will continue to exert diplomatic influence The Baltic States. At the same time, Zakharov called the severing of diplomatic relations an “extremely undesirable” scenario, because Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have a large Russian-speaking population.
In the middle of March 2024 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia 347 citizens of the Baltic States were banned from entering Russia. Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis and other high-ranking members of the government were blacklisted.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the entry ban a response to “the hostile policy of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia against Russia”.
