Zakharova suggested that Estonia ask NATO for money to maintain its embassies

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that the Estonian authorities would have to close 13 embassies out of 38 around the world in order to save money. In this regard, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on November 22 that they could seek financial assistance from NATO countries.

The diplomat recalled that her Estonian counterpart Tzahkna is against reducing the number of the country's embassies. Since in this case it is more important not to save the budget, but to think about the huge image losses that the country will suffer in this case.

"Here he is wrong: the image losses are huge just from the "activity" of these embassies. After all, there is no sense in them. Estonia has no foreign policy other than the Brussels-Washington general line. <...> There are no prospects <...> in principle," Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel.

She added that the absurdity of the situation is that Estonia has funds to help the Kiev regime to protect "European values", but for the maintenance of its embassies - there is no money, "Gazeta.Ru" pointed out.

"A circus, of course. Advice (free of charge, will not affect the Estonian budget) <...>: Tallinn should demand money for its embassies from NATO, since the only raison d'être of their existence is to propagandize the alliance's policies," she summarized.

Earlier, in April, the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that Russia was expelling an employee of the Estonian embassy in Moscow in response to Tallinn's declaration of a Russian diplomat as persona non grata. Estonia's Charge d'Affaires in Moscow Jana Vanamölder was summoned to the building of the Russian Foreign Ministry. She was strongly protested about what had happened.

Prior to that, on March 19, the Estonian Foreign Ministry summoned the Charge d'Affaires of the Russian Embassy and handed him a diplomatic note stating that the embassy's diplomatic staff member had been declared persona non grata. As the Estonian ministry noted at the time, "hybrid operations" were being conducted against the country's security, which "must stop".