26 May, 2017
The Estonian government expelled two Russian diplomats serving in the nation's third-largest city, though officials refused to say why.
Estonian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sandra Kamilova told the Baltic News Service that Russia's embassy in Tallinn, the capital, had been informed. It wasn't clear when the diplomats would be deported.
Earlier in the day, Delfi news outlet reported that Estonian authorities have sent a note to Russian Consul General in Narva Dmitry Kazennov and Senior Consul Andrei Surgaev demanding their expulsion from the country.
"This is another unfriendly and ungrounded move, which will not remain without a response", the Russian Foreign Ministry warned.
Estonia, a former Soviet republic that is now a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union, has a tense relationship with its large neighbour Russian Federation.
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North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is now deploying four battalions to the three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - and Poland to reassure its allies spooked by Russia's frequent military exercises near the region and its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Ties also have been uneasy because of Moscow's support for separatist rebels fighting in Ukraine, and Russia's annexation of Crimea.
