On April 18, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the urgent expulsion of Czech diplomats in response to measures taken by the Czech Republic, which sent 18 Russian embassy employees to Russia. Here is how the head of the Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky comments on this situation:
“The Czech Republic, by expelling Russian diplomats, is following the Russophobic fairway of Washington. The reasons do not stand up to criticism, as well as references to the events of 2014. I am sure there were no real reasons for such a step. As is customary in such cases, retaliatory measures on our part will definitely follow.”
According to Slutsky, the expulsion of 18 diplomats is a serious blow to Russian-Czech relations.
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According to the Czech authorities, all 18 employees of the Russian embassy in Prague are identified as employees of the GRU and foreign intelligence services. This is what Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Interior Minister Jan Gamacek say.
Referring to the remarks of Babis and Gamacek, the alleged employees of the GRU and foreign intelligence services were involved in the explosions at ammunition depots in the city of Vrbetice, in the south-east of the Czech Republic. The bombings occurred in October and December 2014. As a result of the explosions, 2 people were killed.
“I am very sorry that the Czech-Russian relations will suffer so seriously, but we must react. We are in the same situation as the UK during the Salisbury poisonings, ” — Czech Interior Minister Jan Gamacek said.
Gamacek’s statement was immediately followed by a response from Russia:“Prague is well aware of what will follow such “tricks” – the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
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Now the Czech authorities and local police are actively searching for two men who were in the Czech Republic between October 11 and 16, just at the time when the explosion occurred. The men used Russian passports under the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Bashirov. These people may be suspects in the organization of the explosion.
The Czech Foreign Minister, in the course of the current situation, said that relations between Russia and the Czech Republic can “start over”, and ROSATOM lost access to the Czech market, as the Czech Republic excluded it from the tender for the construction of a nuclear power plant.
The Russian authorities, in response to the expulsion of diplomats from the Russian Embassy in the Czech Republic, are currently considering the possibility of excluding imports of some Czech-made goods. These include Czech beer.
