Moscow-Sana
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced today that it will take decisive measures to respond to the Czech Republic over its expulsion of Russian diplomats.
"We express our strong protest to the Czech authorities ... We will take measures to respond that make the perpetrators of this provocation realize their full responsibility for destroying the foundations of the normal development of relations between our two countries," Sputnik quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement.
The statement added, "The Czech authorities have taken an unprecedented decision to expel 18 employees of the Russian embassy under unfounded and improbable excuses about the involvement of Russian special services in the 2014 explosion in military warehouses in the region of Verbatis .. This is absurd because the Czech leadership blamed the blasts earlier on Companies that own these warehouses.
The statement emphasized that "this hostile step came as a continuation of a series of anti-Russian measures taken by the Czech Republic in recent years," explaining that "it is impossible not to see the American impact as the Czech authorities try to satisfy the United States in light of the recent US sanctions against Russia."
Yesterday, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis announced the expulsion of 18 Russian embassy employees, and said in a statement that they "are working for the benefit of Russian intelligence and that there are serious suspicions of their involvement in the 2014 bombing of an ammunition depot in the Verbetes area."