MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. Czech Charge d’Affaires Jiri Cistecky was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on November 17 and was handed a protest against Prague’s sanctions targeting a Russian state-run company, the ministry said in a statement.

"On November 17, the Charge d’Affaires of the Czech Republic, Jiri Cistecky, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The diplomat heard a strong protest in response to the Czech government’s legislative act of November 15 that puts Russia’s Federal State Unitary ‘Enterprise for Property Management Abroad’ (Goszagransobstvennost) on the Czech national sanctions list, freezes all of the enterprise’s assets and bans the management and use of federal real estate properties in the Czech Republic. He was firmly notified of the inadmissibility of such legal arbitrariness," the Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry emphasized that Russia will employ all available means, including retaliatory steps against Czech property assets in Russia, to protect its legitimate interests.

The Czech Foreign Ministry confirmed that its interim charge d’affaires had been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"We can confirm that our temporary charge d’affaires has been invited to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Czech diplomacy will not comment on the details and content of the talks," the CHTK news agency reported, citing an anonymous foreign ministry official.

On November 15, the Czech Republic slapped sanctions on Russia’s Goszagransobstvennost. The company, incorporated into the Administrative Directorate of the Russian President, manages numerous real estate properties owned by Russia in the Czech Republic, which have been frozen as a result of the sanctions.