MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. It seems that Bulgaria is trying to 'outdo' the Czech Republic in its accusations against Russia regarding the four explosions at ammunition factories in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference on Wednesday in response to a question by TASS.

"The time frame shows that either the Bulgarian side knew nothing about this throughout the past 10 years and only now, after the Czech Republic suddenly remembered about the events of 2014, Sofia decided to outdo the Czechs and delve deeper into their history, or they knew the whole time what was happening, but for some reason chose not to announce it," the minister said.

Sergey Lavrov added he was surprised Russia had not yet been charged with complicity in the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand​​​​​, which triggered World War I. "It is good that we have not been blamed for killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand yet, but the odds are that we will be soon, judging by the latest developments," Lavrov said.

Earlier on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Bulgarian Prosecutor General’s Office Siika Mileva informed that the Bulgarian prosecution suspects six Russians of organizing four explosions at the country’s arms factories over a nine-year period stretching from 2011 to 2020. The factories stored weapons belonging to Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev.

Previously, the Czech Republic accused Moscow of involvement in the ammunition depot blasts in Vrbetice in 2014. On April 17, Czech officials announced a decision to expel 18 employees of the Russian Embassy in Prague, who were allegedly "officers of Russian intelligence services." The Russian Foreign Ministry lodged a strong protest to the Czech government and declared 20 employees of the Czech Embassy in Russia’s capital personae non gratae.