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Prague / Moscow (dpa) - After an ultimatum to Russia has expired, the Czech Republic has de facto decided to expel up to 70 Russian diplomats and embassy employees.
The new Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek gave the Kremlin time until the end of May to reduce the size of its representation in Prague to the level of the Czech embassy in Moscow.
The Czech Republic currently has only 24 embassy staff in Moscow, including five diplomats.
However, Russia has 94 embassy employees in Prague, including 27 diplomats.
Prague had unsuccessfully asked the Kremlin to allow all Czech diplomats expelled a few days ago to return to the Moscow embassy.
The representation is barely able to work.
"The Czech Republic is a self-confident country and behaves accordingly," said Kulhanek.
The 36-year-old has only been the chief diplomat of the NATO and EU member states since Wednesday.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow immediately announced countermeasures - but left it open which they would be.
"Prague has embarked on the path of destroying relations, the answer will not be long in coming," said spokeswoman Maria Sakharova of the Interfax agency.
The political conflict began on Saturday with serious allegations from the Czech Republic. Prague accuses Russian secret services of being responsible for explosions in an ammunition dump in Vrbetice in the east of the country in 2014. Two people died in the process. Prime Minister Andrej Babis called it an "unprecedented terrorist attack".
The Czech police are looking for two Russians who are also wanted in connection with the nerve agent attack in Salisbury in March 2018.
In the case in England, an innocent woman died from contact with the poison.
According to a report by the magazine “Respekt”, it is said to have been a larger-scale operation in Vrbetice, in which at least four other agents were involved.
Among other things, a high-ranking Russian intelligence officer flew to Vienna at the time in question.
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A Kremlin spokesman recently spoke of absurd and completely unfounded allegations.
Both countries expelled each other's embassy staff on the weekend - 18 Russians in Prague and 20 Czechs in Moscow.
Observers speak of the worst conflict between the two states in decades.
Out of solidarity with the Czech Republic, neighboring Slovakia has expelled three Russian diplomats.
You have seven days to leave the country, said Prime Minister Eduard Heger, according to the TASR agency.
The Czech Republic has been assured of support from NATO partners in the dispute with Russia.
"The allies express their deep concern about the destabilizing measures that Russia continues to implement in the Euro-Atlantic area (...)," said a statement from the NATO states published in Brussels.
We stand by the side of the Czech Republic in full solidarity.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210422-99-313891 / 2