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Washington behind Czech information campaign against Russia, says diplomat

On April 17, Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek who is also acting foreign minister announced the expulsion of 18 employees of the Russian Embassy in Prague, who were allegedly "officers of Russian intelligence services"

MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Washington is behind the information campaign of the Czech Republic against Russia, all this is being done to distract Western people from the current problems in their countries, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the 60 Minutes show on the Russia-1 TV channel on Monday.

"As for the Czech Republic <...>, you need to understand that the number of problems they have accumulated in the European Union and in the West in general is more than enough. They need to take some urgent measures of an information and political nature to cover up these issues," the diplomat said.

"Russia is that tried-and-true instrument, the thesis that was put into circulation, so to speak, the one they use in such cases. Of course, the United States stands behind this. The country that leads everything in NATO, the country that sets the style for this Western mainstream," she noted.

According to Zakharova, the EU countries and the European Union as such have turned out to be "already completely brought to heel and replaced by the North Atlantic bloc."

"It really does a huge blow to their [EU countries'] independence, on their ability to pursue some kind of sovereign line aimed at internal national interests," she added.

On April 17, Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek who is also acting foreign minister announced the expulsion of 18 employees of the Russian Embassy in Prague, who were allegedly "officers of Russian intelligence services." The move came over the ‘newly-revealed’ allegations about the 2014 blast at the ammunition depot in the village of Vrbetice. In response, Russia declared 20 staff members of the Czech Embassy in Moscow personae non gratae.

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