UPDATE - Estonia asks Russia to reduce diplomatic staff to 8 people

ADDS COMMENTS FROM RUSSIA

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Estonia demanded Wednesday that Russia reduce its diplomatic staff to eight 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.

It noted 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."

Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said in 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.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that "the Estonian authorities should be aware that any hostile actions will not go unanswered."

"It has long been no secret to us that Estonia is one of the most hostile states towards Russia. Russophobia has been elevated to the rank of an official doctrine here. At the same time, they want, apparently, to please their overseas curators once again," she said in a comment on the Foreign Ministry website.