Edgars Skuja, the Latvian Foreign Ministry's acting state secretary, said on Monday that Russian Ambassador to Latvia Viktor Kalyuzhny had been carrying out activity inappropriate to his status as a diplomat, and that the official should be declared a persona non grata in line with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
"We are indignant at the decision to declare an official from the Russian embassy in Riga a persona non grata," Mikhail Kamynin said warning that Russia could take retaliatory measures against the "unfriendly" move.
Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins accused the expelled Russian diplomat of "going beyond the permitted boundaries."
"In many cases such 'side activity' on the part of diplomats is ignored, but when a mouse starts dancing on your table, you have to do something about it," the diplomat said.
In an interview with the LNT television, Latvian Ambassador to Russia Andris Teikmanis said, "All our staff in the embassy in Moscow observe the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Despite this, Russia's reaction to the expulsion of its diplomats is always the same, so we'd better prepare for the expulsion of a Latvian embassy official from Russia."
Latvia first expelled a Russian diplomat in 2004, when Pyotr Urzhumov was accused of spying. Russia expelled Juris Poikans, first secretary of the Latvian embassy, in response.
