Russia blames Baltic countries for the severing of most ties

MOSCOW: The “hostile line” of the Baltic countries have led to the severance of most of their ties with Russia, the Russian foreign ministry said in remarks published on Sunday, warning also that Moscow will respond with asymmetric measures.

“Because of the openly hostile line of Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn, all interstate, interdepartmental, regional and sectoral ties with Russia have been severed,” Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman of the Russian foreign ministry told the RIA state news agency, referring to the capitals of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

She added that Moscow will continue to use diplomatic measures of influence on the Baltic countries.

Estonia last week accused Russia of violating international airspace regulations by interfering with GPS signals and the Baltic countries are among those that are “deeply concerned” about activities they called Russian espionage, Nato said last week.

Zakharova, without specifying what steps taken by the Baltic countries she was referring to, told RIA that Moscow will respond to the hostile actions by Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, with asymmetric measures.

“We will also respond to the hostile actions of the Baltic states with asymmetrical measures, primarily in the economic and transit spheres,” she said.

Russian police in February put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania’s culture minister and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments.

Recent Russian massive drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian energy system have caused more than $1 billion worth of damage to the sector, Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko said on Sunday.

Since March 22, the Russian forces have been attacking Ukrainian thermal and hydropower stations as well as main networks on an almost daily basis, leading to blackouts in many regions.

“Today, we are talking about the amounts of losses for more than a billion dollars. But the attacks continue, and it is obvious that the losses will grow,” Galushchenko said in a statement.

Galushchenko said the main damage was to thermal and hydro generation facilities, as well as power transmission systems.