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Prague held hostage to US policy on Russia, gets ahead of itself at times, says Medvedev

The Security Council deputy chairman recalled that expelling diplomats is always followed by mirrored or sometimes even asymmetrical reciprocal measures

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev Yulia Zyryanova/POOL/TASS

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev

© Yulia Zyryanova/POOL/TASS

MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. The Czech Republic has been taken hostage by America's foreign policy towards Russia, and it sometimes even gets ahead of itself in this regard, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev believes.

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"Our Czech colleagues have become hostages to Washington’s policies on Russia and try to get ahead of themselves, or jump the gun, as we say," Medvedev noted, answering questions from social media users Wednesday. "In general, all diplomatic wars lead to a dead end."

He recalled that expelling diplomats is always followed by mirrored or sometimes even asymmetrical reciprocal measures.

"What did they [Prague] expect? That we would swallow this?" he quipped. "I’m not even talking about the pretext, which is completely contrived in nature. Let them first prove that something had happened there, that is their problem."

"They embarked on this expulsion race. Whom will it harm? It will harm the people and our relations," Medvedev noted. "This page will be turned sooner or later, but there will be a lot of missed opportunities."

"If they [the Czech Republic] believe that they have punished us this way, then no, they have not. But our communication will be complicated. The responsibility for this rests entirely on their shoulders. And there is no normal way out from this downward spiral," the deputy chairman concluded.

Earlier, Czech authorities claimed that Russia had been allegedly involved in the 2014 explosions at arms depots in Vrbetice, and expelled 18 Russian Embassy employees, labelling them ‘intelligence officers’. The Russian Foreign Ministry lodged a decisive protest and expelled 20 employees of the Czech Embassy in Moscow in response.

On April 25, Czech President Milos Zeman stated that the Security Information Service (counterintelligence) reports did not mention any proof that any "Russian agents" were present in the Vrbetice depots, adding that this version had only surfaced recently. Besides, according to the President, Czech law enforcement officers have determined a link between Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev and the explosions.

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