The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs threatens the Baltic States again

“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 on the Baltic states. At the same time, Zakharova called the severance of diplomatic relations an “extremely undesirable” scenario, because Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have a large Russian-speaking population.

In mid-March 2024, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia banned 347 citizens of the Baltic States from entering Russia. Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius 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”.