MOSCOW ANGRY OVER CZECH CLAIMS IT WAS BEHIND FATAL DUMP BLAST

Moscow reacted furiously on Sunday to Czech accusations that two Russian spies accused of a nerve agent poisoning in Britain in 2018 were behind an explosion at a Czech ammunition dump four years earlier, which killed two people.

Prague on Saturday expelled no fewer than 18 Russian diplomats, prompting Russia’s Foreign Ministry to vow on Sunday to “force the authors of this provocation to fully understand their responsibility for destroying the foundation of normal ties between our countries.”

The Czech Republic said it had informed NATO and European Union allies that it suspected Russia of causing the blast, and European Union foreign ministers were set to discuss the matter at their meeting on Monday.

The row is the biggest between Prague and Moscow since the end of decades of Soviet domination of eastern Europe in 1989.