MOSCOW — Russia declared one employee of the Embassy of Slovenia a "persona non grata" as a retaliatory move after Ljubljana expelled a Russian diplomat, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday.

On Friday morning, the ministry summoned the Slovenian Ambassador to Russia Darja Bavdaz Kuret to lodge a protest regarding "the groundless deprivation of accreditation" of a Russian embassy employee in Slovenia, the ministry said in a statement.

"We consider this another openly unfriendly step in the context of Ljubljana's general course towards destroying Russian-Slovenian ties. Responsibility for the consequences of such a destructive policy lies entirely with the Slovenian side," the statement read.