Baltic states summon Russian diplomatic representatives after news Russia put politicians from the countries on wanted list

Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia summoned Russian diplomatic representatives on Wednesday in response to news that Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry had placed politicians from the countries on its wanted list.

Estonia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry expressed outrage to Russian Charge d’Affaires Lenar Salimullin that Estonian officials, including Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, were on the list. The ministry demanded a written explanation from Russia.

Lithuania and Latvia’s Foreign Affairs Ministries called Russian accusations against their former and current politicians “politically motivated.” The Latvian ministry demanded an explanation from Russian Charge d'Affaires Oleg Zykov, while the Lithuanian ministry handed a Russian embassy representative a note of “strong” protest.

Journalists at Mediazona studied the more than 96,000 entries added to the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry’s wanted database since the beginning of February 2024 and discovered that Russia had put dozens of European politicians on the list, as well as numerous high-ranking Ukrainian military officials.