MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. The statements by Czech authorities that Moscow has to pay compensation for the damage caused by explosions at an ammo storage facility in the village of Vrbetice in 2014 cannot be rationally explained, a commentary by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made public on Thursday said.
"Lately, Prague has been continuing to voice statements with regards to Russian-Czech relations that are hard to explain rationally. They even ended up saying that Russia supposedly should pay one billion in compensation for the consequences of the incident the investigation of which hasn’t been completed, and Prague itself cannot sort out the versions of the causes of the incident," she pointed out.
The spokeswoman also noted that "the attempts to unload responsibility for the destruction of bilateral relations on Moscow, using absurd arguments, look clumsy." She emphasized that "the beginning of the destructive performance was initiated by Prague who over several years has been systematically obstructing the operations of the Russian embassy, creatively inventing various obstacles to its normal functions".
"Nobody recalled the Vienna Convention at the Czech Foreign Ministry or, rather, didn’t want to hear about it," the commentary noted.
"Then there was cynical mayhem with the dismantling of a monument to Prague’s liberator Soviet marshal I.S. Konev in April 2020 and the expulsion of two employees of the Russian diplomatic mission, who were allegedly planning to poison the mayor of Prague with ricin. And then they came up with a riveting scenario about the warehouses in Vrbetice, the regretful results of which for Russian-Czech relations are already known to everyone."
According to the diplomat, "the Czech side got completely lost in its own confabulations". "We’ll see if reason prevails in the end for our partners," she concluded.
Russian-Czech diplomatic relations
In April, Czech authorities claimed that Moscow was allegedly involved in the explosions at an ammo storage facility in the village of Vrbetice in the eastern part of the country in 2014 that resulted in two deaths. The Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian diplomats, who were allegedly "officers of Russian intelligence services", after that. The Russian Foreign Ministry lodged a strong protest over this step taken "under conjured-up and ungrounded pretexts" and declared 20 employees of the Czech Embassy in Moscow personae non gratae.
On May 31, head of the Czech Republic’s Foreign Ministry stated that the country’s authorities continue to support the idea of demanding monetary compensation from Russia for the damage incurred by explosions at the ammo depots in the village of Vrbetice in 2014. According to him, Prague had already drafted a corresponding inquiry to Moscow. Earlier, Czech Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Alena Schillerova said the Czech Republic intended to claim at least 1 bln koruna (approximately 39 mln euro) from Russia as compensation for material damages.