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US, Europe keep shrugging off Russia’s desire to build good ties, says Kremlin

The spokesman stressed that Moscow would not tolerate "what the Czechs are doing"
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov EPA/SERGEI KARPUKHIN/POOL
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov
© EPA/SERGEI KARPUKHIN/POOL

MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. The United States and European states keep brushing off Russia’s aspiration to construct a good relationship with them, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Bolshaya Igra (Big Game) on Channel One on Thursday.

"The most important thing is Russia’s wish to have good relations. For some reason, Washington, Brussels and [other] European capitals keep turning a deaf ear to the first part and key message of President [Vladimir] Putin," Peskov noted.

Meanwhile, Peskov stressed that Russia would not tolerate "what the Czechs are doing, they are joined by the Bulgarians, and they are joined by the Baltic states and others in the framework of this so-called alleged solidarity."

"We won’t tolerate this," Peskov insisted. "And we are clearly demonstrating this. And like Putin said, this will continue in the future," he vowed.

Moscow will respond to the inflammatory actions that the Czech Republic and Bulgaria have taken, the Kremlin spokesman went on. "Russia has been and will continue to react. Such unacceptable and inflammatory actions, as well as completely unacceptable and baseless accusations against Russia, won’t go unanswered," he pointed out.

However, the presidential spokesman did not specify the measures that Moscow will take. "In any case, Russia will act in its own interests," Peskov noted.

On April 17, Czech officials announced the expulsion of 18 employees of the Russian Embassy in Prague, who, according to the Czech authorities, are "officers of Russia’s SVR and GRU intelligence agencies." Prague justified the move by citing claims of some newly-discovered circumstances related to an ammunition depot blast that had occurred in the eastern Czech village of Vrbetice in 2014. The Russian Foreign Ministry protested against the move and declared 20 employees of the Czech Embassy in Moscow personae non gratae.

On Wednesday, Spokesperson for Bulgaria’s Prosecutor General Sijka Mileva told reporters that the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office suspected six Russians of involvement in four explosions between 2011 and 2020 in the country’s arms factories where products belonging to Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev had been stored.