Moscow demands safety for its diplomats in Baltic States

MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - The authorities in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia must take steps necessary to protect the Russian diplomatic and consular missions and staff, the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

"Over the past few days our diplomatic missions have received repeated calls with all kinds of threat, and there has also been a rise in disruptive activity, including rallies in the immediate proximity of our embassies and journalists in those countries openly calling for a 'siege' of our diplomatic missions. In fact, such activity already started around Russia's Embassy in Vilnius," where "a Russian diplomat was physically assaulted and attempts were made to harass our ambassador," Zakharova said in a comment on Saturday.

"We warn Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn of their responsibility for any consequences of anti-Russia psychosis they started. We demand that the competent authorities in these countries take urgent steps to protect the Russian diplomatic and consular missions and their employees strictly in accordance with the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, and on Consular Relations, 1963."