Estonia asks Russia to reduce diplomatic staff to 8 people

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Estonia on Wednesday asked Russia to reduce its diplomatic staff to eight people by Feb. 1.

"The purpose of the decision is to achieve parity in the number of embassy employees, which means that the number of positions in Russian and Estonian representative offices in the capitals of the countries will be the same," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

It noted that the number of employees at the Russian Embassy should be reduced to eight "diplomatic posts" and up to 15 "administrative, technical and service personnel positions."

Commenting on the move, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said that in the light of the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian Embassy "does not promote Estonian-Russian relations," and therefore there are "no grounds" for the embassy to work in its current composition.