Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Friday joined a fast-growing list of NATO and EU members demanding the removal of Russian diplomats for alleged spying, in actions that have infuriated Moscow and look certain to provoke further retaliation.
A spate of tit-for-tat expulsions has plunged ties between Russia and countries of the former Soviet bloc to their lowest point since the fall of Communism, prompting Moscow to accuse at least two of them of deliberately wrecking relations.
Lithuania said it was sending two diplomats home and Latvia and Estonia one each. "The EU should have less undercover Russian spies," Lithuanian foreign affairs minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters.
Three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow maintains imposing and generously staffed embassies across central and eastern Europe, which the host countries say provide convenient cover for espionage.
