Russia expels diplomats from Baltic nations, Slovakia

Moscow takes retaliatory action for the ejection of Russian diplomats as dispute over Czech ammunition depot blast deepens.

Russia has ordered a total of seven diplomats from three Baltic nations and Slovakia to leave the country in a retaliatory response to their governments’ own expulsions of Russian envoys. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday gave the three diplomats from Slovakia, two from Lithuania, one from Estonia and another from Latvia one week to leave Russia. Moscow’s action marks the latest escalation of a serious diplomatic fallout between Russia and several European Union nations that began earlier this month when the Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian diplomats over the alleged involvement of Russian spies in a massive ammunition depot explosion in 2014.