Germany, Poland and Sweden expelled three Russian diplomats in a coordinated retaliation on Monday evening for the expulsion of three European Union diplomats by Russia over participation in unsanctioned rallies, TASS news agency reported.

The messages about the expulsion of Russian diplomats were issued on the foreign ministries' Twitter accounts almost concurrently. 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on state TV the three EU countries' actions were "unjustified, unfriendly and a continuation of the same series of actions the West is taking against our country, which we qualify as interference in internal affairs," according to Interfax news agency.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday the removal of diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden is for taking part in protests last month against imprisonment of Alexei Navalny which started a day before Borrell's trip.

The EU executive defended Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, over his trip to Russia where he said he had learned of the expulsions via social media while speaking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday.

Germany's Foreign Office, in a statement regarding its ejection of a Russian diplomat, said the federal government was responding to the Russian decision of February 5. Sweden echoed the German stance, calling the expulsions by Moscow "unacceptable".

Poland's Foreign Ministry said it ordered a member of the Russian consulate in the city of Poznan to leave "in response to the groundless expulsion of the Polish diplomat by the Russian Foreign Ministry".

Also on Monday, Russia announced that it was expelling an Albanian diplomat after one of its own embassy workers was ordered to leave the Balkan state for allegedly repeated violations of coronavirus rules.

The decision was made in response to Albania expelling the first secretary of the Russian embassy in Tirana "under a completely contrived pretext," the statement said.

Albania in late January ordered Alexei Krivosheev to leave the country citing unspecified violations of coronavirus measures, but said it wanted "friendly relations" with Moscow.

Poland convened a two-hour video call with EU states on Monday that was joined by envoys from Britain, the United States, Canada and Ukraine, as well as two allies of Navalny, Vladimir Ashurkov and Leonid Volkov, to discuss policy on Russia, including sanctions, according to Reuters.

EU foreign ministers will discuss Russia on February 22.

Russia has been under Western economic sanctions since it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 but is also a major energy supplier that also helps the West in areas such as upholding the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

(With input from agencies)