"Consolidated anti-Russian position": how the "Visegrad group" supported the position of the Czech Republic towards the Russian Federation

The prime ministers of the Visegrad group countries expressed solidarity with the Czech Republic in connection with the situation around the expulsion of diplomats from Russia.

This is stated in a statement on the official website of the association, which includes Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

“We, the Prime Ministers of Poland, Hungary and Slovaks, express our complete solidarity with our close partner and neighbor the Czech Republic, in connection with the involvement of Russian military intelligence officers in the explosion at an ammunition depot in Vrbetica in 2014,” reads a statement on the group's website ...

The actions of Moscow, which expelled 20 Czech diplomats in response to a similar move by Prague, are called "disproportionate" in the statement.

Against the background of the diplomatic crisis, the group's prime ministers offered the Czech Republic diplomatic and consular support.

An urgent summit of the Visegrad Four prime ministers was convened at the initiative of the head of the Polish government, Mateusz Morawiecki.

It was reported that in addition to the events in the Czech Republic, the Visegrad group prime ministers discussed the situation in Belarus and Ukraine, as well as cooperation in strengthening security in the region.

Earlier, the heads of the Foreign Ministry of the four expressed solidarity with the actions of Prague in relation to Russian diplomats.

Czech demarche

Recall that on April 17, Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babis said that Russia was allegedly involved in the explosions at the ammunition depot in the village of Vrbetice in 2014, as a result of which two people died.

More than 10 tons of ammunition were stored in the warehouses.

On the same day, the Czech authorities announced the expulsion from the country of 18 Russian diplomats, who allegedly are members of the special services.

In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed a strong protest to Prague and declared 20 employees of the Czech diplomatic mission in Moscow persona non grata.

• Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Czech Republic

• © REUTERS / David W Cerny

Soon, as a sign of solidarity with the Czech Republic, several Russian diplomats expelled Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

The accusations of the Czech Republic against the Russian Federation were supported by the European Union, calling them justified.

Later, the Czech Foreign Ministry announced that they would continue to expel Russian diplomats if all the deported employees of the diplomatic mission were not returned to the Russian capital.

Commenting on the position of Prague, Maria Zakharova stated that the Czech side "took the path of destroying relations."

In her opinion, in the Czech Republic they did not understand "what their Western curators are being drawn into," and then "they were not given the opportunity to take a step back."

“They got what they wanted.

And I would even say in another way: they even got what they did not dream of.

I think that when they got involved, when Prague got involved in this adventure, I think they did not calculate the consequences, "said a Foreign Ministry spokesman in an interview with RT in German.

In turn, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, called the accusations made by the Czech authorities "a wretched and base lie".

“Political leaders, the political elite of a group of Western countries are trying, step by step, with maniacal obstinacy, to destroy the delicate and rather fragile fabric of international stability and international security.

The Czech Republic distinguished itself before our very eyes, a country of rather limited sovereignty in foreign policy went to aggravation, confrontation with Russia.

And, I must admit, I got what I wanted, ”TASS quotes him.

Interest group

The Visegrad Group was formed in 1991.

Initially, it consisted of three states - Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which was unified at that time.

Then the group was called "Visegrad triangle".

The main goal of the group was declared the desire for integration into European structures.

All members of this organization - Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia - became members of the European Union in 2004.

It is worth noting that out of the four members of the group, only Hungary, in connection with the latest events, has not yet taken any action to expel Russian diplomats or other restrictions on the work of Russian diplomatic missions.

• The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

• © Konstantin Kokoshkin / Global Look Press

As the director of the Institute of History and Politics of the Moscow State Pedagogical University Vladimir Shapovalov said in an interview with RT, the "Visegrad group" is actually a separate coalition of Eastern and Central European countries within the EU.

“We see that on very many issues these countries take a solidarity position, moreover, on very many issues this position does not quite coincide and even contradicts the course of the EU and the countries of Western Europe.

Note that none of the Western European countries has yet joined this demarche, and this is not accidental, ”the political scientist noted.

Shapovalov recalled that during the migration crisis in the EU, the countries of the Visegrad Four actually ignored the general demand of the EU countries to distribute migrants according to quotas, and during the pandemic, the countries of the group closed themselves from other states of the Union.

“That is, on the face of a certain group of countries, which takes a special position.

This position is quite solidary in relation to each other and in relation to the outside world.

In this case, it is derived from the US exchange rate.

In fact, the "Visegrad group" is a Trojan horse of America within the EU, "the expert said.

He also expressed the opinion that the current actions of the group can be coordinated by the American side.

“In this case, the consolidated position of the Visegrad Four countries is an order from Washington.

I want to emphasize that this is what explains this position, while at least three countries of the four have politicians who are interested in normalizing relations with Russia, ”the political scientist explained.

However, these countries continue to take a confrontational position in relation to Moscow, Shapovalov emphasized.

“In all these countries, except Poland, there are influential politicians who are focused on good-neighborly relations with Russia.

But at the same time, we see that, at the behest from Washington, these countries are consolidatingly taking an anti-Russian position, despite the fact that it essentially contradicts their national interests, "the interlocutor of RT said.

Despite the fact that the "Visegrad group" has fulfilled the stated goals when creating, its structure is preserved to coordinate the policies of these countries in relations with Brussels, Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, explained in a conversation with RT.

However, the example of Hungary shows that there is no complete solidarity within the group, the expert added.

“Now the countries of Central Europe are increasingly coordinating their policies in relations with Brussels, Berlin and Washington.

In addition, they are trying to establish a more or less coordinated policy in the eastern direction, which turns out to be the most difficult for them.

On the issue of relations with Russia, they have the most disagreements, especially between Poland and Hungary, ”explained Nemensky.

Despite the fact that so far everything is not very good with real actions, they are conducting similar symbolic actions, the expert emphasized.

“It is precisely in this sphere, which is of a declarative nature, that it turns out to be much easier to interact with each other, and they use every opportunity to declare that regional integration in Eastern Europe is not a thing of the past, but remains a relevant phenomenon,” he noted. interlocutor RT.

Now the countries of the Visegrad group are trying to coordinate their performance in the international arena on the issues raised by the Czech Republic, Nemensky added.

“It is clear that as the Czech Republic fulfilled the order from across the Atlantic, all these countries focused their policy mainly on the United States, and not on Brussels. We can say that this is such a support group for the United States in the east of the EU, and it can be assumed that the rest of the members of the Visegrad group were given appropriate instructions or hints from Washington that they should support the Czech Republic. So the external factor cannot be disregarded, it is even of paramount importance, ”the political scientist concluded.