Russia has announced the expulsion of 20 Czech diplomats a day after Prague’s decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats identified as secret agents.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that the 20 employees of the Czech embassy had been declared persona non grata and must leave the country by the end of Monday.
The expulsions were unveiled after the Czech ambassador in Moscow, Vitezslav Pivonka, was been summoned by the Russian foreign ministry where he was informed of the action.
The Ministry called the Czech government’s decision to expel Russian diplomats a hostile act and added that the Czech employees were to leave Russia by the end of April 19, 2021.
On Saturday, Czech authorities said they would expel 18 Russian diplomats which local intelligence identified as secret agents of the Russian SVR and GRU security services that are suspected of involvement in a 2014 explosion.
Czech police also said they were seeking two Russians in connection with the blast that killed two people, and who carried passports used by suspects in the attempted poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain in 2018.
This week the United States announced sanctions and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats in retaliation for what Washington said was the Kremlin’s US election interference, a massive cyber attack and other hostile activity.
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