Lithuania said on Monday it was expelling the head of the Russian embassy over actions and statements “incompatible with his diplomatic status”.
“Sergei Ryabokon is given five days to leave the country,” the Baltic EU state’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Lithuania in April downgraded its diplomatic relations with Russia, making second-in-command Ryabokon the head of the embassy, in response to atrocities discovered in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
Lithuanian Deputy Foreign minister Mantas Adomenas told journalists the diplomat was being expelled because of “cynical distortion of historical events” in comments about the deadly Soviet assault in Lithuania in 1991 which killed 14 civilians and wounded over 700.
In 2019, a Lithuanian court convicted dozens of Soviet-era officials of war crimes, but most of them are in Russia and Moscow has refused to extradite them.
Ryabokon said in an interview with Russian media that demonstrations against Soviet rule in Lithuania were illegal and people died because of “provocations”.
Ryabokon also had “active communication” with people “acting against the national interests of Lithuania“, Adomenas said.
