Russia expelling 2 Finnish embassy employees in retaliatory move - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. May 17 (Interfax) - Russia has declared two employees of the Finnish embassy in Moscow personae non gratae in retaliation to an analogous step made earlier by Helsinki, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Finnish Ambassador to Russia Antti Helantera was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on May 17. A firm protest was declared to the head of mission over the unwarranted expulsion from Finland of two employees of the Russian embassy in Helsinki as part of the EU's anti-Russian sanction campaign," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Moscow views supplies of weapons to Ukraine and Finland's confrontational course as unacceptable, it said.

"The ambassador was notified that, in response to those actions by the Finnish authorities, the Russian side decided that the presence of two employees of the Finnish embassy in Moscow in Russia is no longer acceptable," the ministry said.