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Czech Republic to announce new expulsion of Russian diplomats Wednesday — report

The Czech diplomatic corpus believes that the Czech Embassy in Russia staff is much smaller than that of the Russian mission in Prague

PRAGUE, April 20. /TASS/. The Czech Republic will announce the new expulsion of Russian diplomats on Wednesday, local media reported Tuesday citing high-ranking sources.

According to the report, the new diplomats’ expulsion will be announced by Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek, who will undergo the appointment ceremony earlier the same day. The number of diplomats to be expelled is yet unknown. The report points out that the expulsion will not involve Ambassador Alexander Zmeyevsky, who was invited to the Foreign Ministry for Wednesday.

Local media reported Tuesday that the Ambassador will receive the Foreign Ministry protest over Russia’s reaction to Czechia’s expulsion of 18 Russian Embassy employees.

More or less

The Czech diplomatic corpus believes that the Czech Embassy in Russia staff is much smaller than that of the Russian mission in Prague. The opposition urges the government to take steps to achieve parity in the size of both missions.

According to the Czech Foreign Ministry, the Russian mission staff includes 27 diplomats and 67 technical employees, while the Czech Embassy employs 5 diplomats and 19 technical employees.

Meanwhile, Director of the Czech Presidential Administration International Department Rudolf Yindrak said on Twitter that Czechia has more employees in its missions in Russia than vice versa.

"Overall, we have about 50 people more registered in Moscow (the Embassy, the Cesky Dum) than the Russians have in Prague," he noted.

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