Two employees of the Lithuanian embassy, three of Slovakia, as well as one employee of the diplomatic missions of Latvia and Estonia each must leave Russia within a week, the Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow lodged a strong protest with the representatives of these countries. Earlier, they declared several Russians persona non grata out of solidarity with the Czech Republic.
Similar measures have also been taken by the United States, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, and Romania.
There is a serious crisis in relations between Moscow and Prague: the parties have expelled dozens of people after the Czech authorities accused Russia of involvement in the explosions at an arms depot in Vrbetica in 2014.
In some cases, the expulsion became part of the sanctions policy, in others, there were accusations of espionage, in others, the departments referred to the Vienna Convention, which allows not to name the reason.