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Russia to respond to further Prague’s destructive steps, diplomat says

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that all disagreements between states are usually being resolved via existing bilateral channels, including diplomatic ones

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Russian foreign Ministry press service/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Russian foreign Ministry press service/TASS

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. The Czech Republic must realize that Russia will continue to respond to further steps that are destructive to bilateral relations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview Tuesday.

"[Prague] is well aware and has to realize that we will respond. The more destructive actions they will take, the more they will receive in response," Zakharova said.

She noted that all disagreements between states are usually being resolved via existing bilateral channels, including diplomatic ones. She reminded that, following the explosion in Vrbetice, the Czech authorities "were unable to provide any version of the incident for seven years."

Read also

Russia’s reaction to ouster of diplomats harsher than expected, top Czech official admits

"But literally in a couple of days, immediately after the massive attack of the West, the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the US, Poland, after statements of some new claims on interference in their internal affairs, Prague made an effort and rolled out a version. But, in two days, this version accumulated so many fakes and lies from Czech officials that I’d like to underscore: we have not seen such absurd in a long time," the diplomat added.

On April 17, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and First Deputy Prime Minister - acting Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek announced the expulsion of 18 Russian Embassy employees, whom they called "officers of Russia’s SVR and GRU intelligence agencies." This was done over the allegedly newly discovered details if the 2014 explosions in arms depots in Vrbetice. Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its decisive protest over the step, taken under an "ungrounded and contrived pretext," and expelled 20 Czech Embassy employees.

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