Moscow expelled 20 Czech diplomats on Sunday, Reuters reported. It was a retaliation for the Czech expulsion of Russian diplomats. The Czech side suspects Russian intelligence agencies were involved in an arsenal bombing that occurred in 2014. The explosion killed two Czechs.
On Saturday, Prague ordered 18 Russian diplomats to leave the country, prompting Russia to vow Sunday to “force the authors of this provocation to fully understand their responsibility for undermining the foundations of normal relations between our two countries.”
Moscow gave the Czech diplomats only one day to leave, while Prague gave the Russians three days.
The Czech Republic said it had notified NATO and EU allies that it suspected Russia of staging the 2014 bombing, and that EU foreign ministers would discuss the matter at a meeting Monday.
The State Department praised Prague’s firm response to “Russia’s subversive actions on Czech territory.
It was the biggest spat between Prague and Moscow since the Soviet Union ended its decades-long control of Eastern Europe in 1989.
It also exacerbated overall growing tensions between Russia and the West, partly over Russia’s military buildup on its western border and in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 after heavy fighting erupted between government forces and pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
Russia says Prague’s accusations are absurd because it previously blamed the owner of the arsenal for the explosion in Vrbitis, 300 kilometers (210 miles) east of the Czech capital.
Russia called the expulsion “a continuation of a series of anti-Russian actions taken by the Czech Republic in recent years” and accused Prague of “trying to please the United States against the backdrop of its recent sanctions against Russia.”
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