Russia has announced harsh retaliation for the Czech Republic’s decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats. The deportation is absurd and a provocation that shows traces of American interference, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Yesterday, Czech Prime Minister Babis announced that there is evidence of Russian intelligence officers being involved in an explosion in a Czech ammunition depot in 2014. The blast killed two people. To punish Russia, the Czech Republic expels eighteen Russian diplomats, who, according to Babis, work for the Russian secret service. They must have left the country by tomorrow at the latest.
It is not yet known what retaliatory measures Moscow is thinking about. Foreign Affairs in Moscow says it will react to the Czech “provocation” in such a way that Prague understands what it means to “destroy” normal mutual relations.
News from the Czech Republic is also closely followed in the United Kingdom. According to Czech police, two Russians involved in the 2014 blast were the same secret agents who tried to poison Russian double agent Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 with novichok, a poison gas from the Soviet era.
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