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Russia has expelled two Canadian diplomats working for Nato's Moscow office in response to an "unfriendly act" by the military alliance.
Last week Nato expelled two Russian envoys from its headquarters in Brussels, reportedly due to spying.
The diplomatic spat comes as Nato begins military exercises in Georgia, seen by Russia as a "provocation".
Last August Russian and Georgian forces clashed in a brief war over breakaway pro-Moscow Georgian territories.
Nine months after the war in Georgia relations between Russia and Nato were supposed to be getting back on track, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow.
Instead, they have taken a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse, our correspondent says.
'Counterproductive'
Ottawa's ambassador to Russia, Ralph Lysyshyn, was summoned to the foreign ministry where he was told Moscow felt it had been forced into the move.
"In response to the unfriendly act on Nato's part... the Russian side has taken the forced decision to revoke the diplomatic accreditation " of the two Nato staff, a foreign ministry statement said.
The Canadian diplomats being expelled are the director of the Nato information office in Moscow and her deputy.
The Canadian embassy in Moscow said the decision to expel its diplomats was "counterproductive".
This latest round of tit-for-tat expulsions stems from a spy scandal in Estonia in which thousands of pages of sensitive data were handed to Russian agents.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8035397.stm
Last week Nato expelled two Russian envoys from its headquarters in Brussels, reportedly due to spying.
The diplomatic spat comes as Nato begins military exercises in Georgia, seen by Russia as a "provocation".
Last August Russian and Georgian forces clashed in a brief war over breakaway pro-Moscow Georgian territories.
Nine months after the war in Georgia relations between Russia and Nato were supposed to be getting back on track, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow.
Instead, they have taken a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse, our correspondent says.
'Counterproductive'
Ottawa's ambassador to Russia, Ralph Lysyshyn, was summoned to the foreign ministry where he was told Moscow felt it had been forced into the move.
"In response to the unfriendly act on Nato's part... the Russian side has taken the forced decision to revoke the diplomatic accreditation " of the two Nato staff, a foreign ministry statement said.
The Canadian diplomats being expelled are the director of the Nato information office in Moscow and her deputy.
The Canadian embassy in Moscow said the decision to expel its diplomats was "counterproductive".
This latest round of tit-for-tat expulsions stems from a spy scandal in Estonia in which thousands of pages of sensitive data were handed to Russian agents.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8035397.stm