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Moscow vows tit-for-tat response to Czech Republic

Prague has deliberately delivered a blow on the Russian-Czech cooperation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. Russia will approve tit-for-tat measures in response to the Czech Republic that expelled two Russian diplomats, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Solovyev Live YouTube channel on Saturday.

"[They] announced the expulsion of two Russian staffers from the foreign mission. But retaliatory measures will definitely follow," the diplomat said. "It will be certainly taken into consideration in the course of building relations with that state (the Czech Republic - TASS). There cannot be any other decision."

According to Zakharova, it is another attempt to compromise bilateral relations.

"We have classed that as an unfriendly and, in general, indecent step," she stressed.

The diplomat pointed out that over the recent years, Moscow had been persistently developing relations with Prague in the humanitarian, economic and political fields. Nevertheless, Prague has deliberately delivered a blow on the Russian-Czech cooperation.

"The blow has been deliberately delivered on a wide range of fields," she said. "Do you remember that anti-humane story related to the monument to Konev which had escalated prior to the anniversary [of Soviet victory in World War Two]? And all those myths about emergence of some poisons that were allegedly smuggled by representatives of the Russian missions and many other things, which are obscene, vulgar and disgusting," she said.

On June 5, the Czech Foreign Ministry notified the Russian embassy of Prague’s decision to expel two embassy workers. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis earlier declared the two diplomats personae non grata. According to him, reports of a Russian diplomat bringing ricin poison into the country, which followed the demolition of a monument dedicated to WWII Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev in Prague, turned out to be fake. Babis alleged that a Russian embassy employee had provided counterintelligence services with false information about a planned poison attack on Czech politicians, raising tensions between the two countries.