The Czech Republic has given Russia until the end of next month to reduce the staff of its embassy in Prague to that of the Czech diplomatic mission in Moscow, TASS and Reuters reported.
This came after the new Czech Foreign Minister, Jakub Kulhanek, who took office earlier in the day, gave an ultimatum to Russia by noon today to allow the 20 employees of the Czech embassy in Moscow who were fired to resign. returned. However, the request was not complied with. And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the situation as hysterical and called for diplomats to be given the opportunity to do their job and formulate Moscow’s position.
On Saturday, the Czech Republic expelled 18 employees of the Russian embassy in Prague after saying that two Russian agents had caused an explosion in an arms warehouse in the country in 2014, in which two people were killed. The Czech authorities said that the exploded weapons belonged to the Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev, thus preventing a deal with Ukraine, with which Russia is currently in strained relations.
Russia has denied the Czech Republic’s accusations and called the actions “provocative and unfriendly”. She, in turn, announced on Sunday that she was expelling 20 employees of the Czech embassy in Moscow, which is less than the Russian one in Prague.
According to the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the staff of the country’s embassy in Russia numbers 24 people – 5 diplomats and 19 technical staff. The Russian embassy in the Czech Republic has 94 staff members – 27 diplomats and 67 technical staff. That means dozens have to leave.
Russian Ambassador to Prague Alexander Zmeevski arrived at the Czech Foreign Ministry to meet with his leadership.
The Czech authorities meanwhile tightened security at the Russian embassy in Prague.
Earlier, the EU and NATO expressed support for the Czech Republic.
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