MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. Czech President Petr Pavel's statement on Russians is regrettable and reflects the appropriate level of Russophobia in the West, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.

"You know, we usually try not to comment on presidential statements. In this case, I leave it to his conscience and to the judgment of the Czech people, whose president he is. It expresses the level of Russophobia that prevails in Western Europe today. We can only regret it," Grushko told TASS.

Earlier, Czech President Petr Pavel said in an interview that "all Russians living in Western countries should be watched much more closely than before," recalling that this was the approach of the United States to Japanese citizens who left the country at the beginning of World War II. Later, presidential spokeswoman Marketa Rehakova clarified that it was not a question of "internment or any kind of persecution," but of monitoring those Russians "who have risk factors."