“Indecent act”: what is known about the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the Czech Republic

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow will take the expulsion of two Russian diplomats into account when interacting with the Czech Republic.

She described Prague’s decision to declare diplomats persona non grata as an “indecent act,” and added that the Russian side would take mirror and asymmetric decisions.

“Of course, there will be retaliatory measures, but the most important thing is that they will not only be retaliatory mirror or symmetric measures. Of course, all this will be taken into account in building relations with this state, there can be no other solution, ”Zakharova emphasized in an interview with the Solovyov LIVE YouTube channel.

Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin previously said that the actions of the Czech authorities are a provocation.

“There will be retaliatory measures, but on the whole it is, of course, a very vile and vile provocation by the Czech authorities,” he said.

Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo Mikhail Bryukhanov specified that the diplomatic staff in question are - and. about. Andrei Konchakov, the head of the representative office of the federal agency in Prague, and an employee named Rybakov. 

“They leave Prague on June 7th and head to Moscow. A way was found to send them from the Czech Republic to Russia, ”TASS quoted him as saying.

Bruchanov emphasized that the federal agency has no reason to question the reliability of its employees.

“They will return to Moscow. We will make a decision based on all the facts. So far, we have no reason not to trust our employees and to blame them for something. The Czech side has not presented a single significant qualitative fact that allows us to agree with their position, ”he said.

Bruchanov recalled that the Russian Foreign Ministry urged Prague to sit at the negotiating table to discuss the situation and study all the facts.

“We were ready for dialogue, but the Czech side ignored all the proposals of the Foreign Ministry and went on such a demarche,” he said.

The deputy head of Rossotrudnichestvo expressed the opinion that the Czech authorities “save their uniform in the eyes of voters” after they allowed themselves to put into the public space false information about the import of toxic substances. He emphasized that Prague had driven itself into a situation where it was forced to take some measures in order not to be caught in a lie.

Recall that on June 5, Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babish announced the announcement of two employees of the Russian diplomatic mission as persons non grata. According to him, the corresponding decision was made in connection with the story of the alleged transportation of the toxic substance ricin to the Czech Republic.

In April, the Czech publication Respekt published material stating that at the beginning of the month a man with a Russian diplomatic passport arrived in Prague and was met by a car from the Russian diplomatic mission. It also claims that the diplomat allegedly brought ricin poison with him, intended for the headman of the metropolitan area of ​​Praha 6, Ondrzej Kolář, who initiated the dismantling of the monument to Marshal Ivan Konev, as well as for the mayor of Prague, Zdenek Grzyb, who decided to rename the square in front of the Russian embassy in honor of the Russian opposition Boris Nemtsov. It is worth noting that the media in its publication referred to some unnamed sources.

In May, another Czech publication, Seznam Zpráv, published material about a conversation with and. about. Andrei Konchakov, the head of the Rossotrudnichestvo representative office in the republic, who allegedly was the Russian diplomat who brought poison to the country. Konchakov himself denied the accusations, and the Russian embassy after publication said that the diplomatic official “received personal persecution due to Czech media” and received threats.

A spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, commenting on publications by Czech media noted that they "look like another duck." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in turn, called the materials of the publications "unthinkable."

Commenting on the incident, the head of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, noted that Russia could give a symmetrical response to Prague’s actions, despite the desire to develop bilateral relations.

“The motivation for the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the Czech Republic sounds just as fabulous as the myths about Russian poisoners. Moscow is no less interested in good relations than Prague, but there is every reason to respond symmetrically, ”the deputy wrote on his Twitter page.