Moscow lashes out at Prague after Skripal accusation

Tensions between Moscow and Prague spiralled Sunday with Russia ordering out 20 diplomats, a day after the Czech Republic accused the suspects in the Skripal poisoning of being behind a deadly 2014 explosion on its soil.

Czech authorities on Saturday announced they were expelling 18 Russian diplomats identified as secret agents of the Russian SVR and GRU security services and suspected of involvement in the blast at a military ammunition warehouse that killed two people.

Police said they were seeking two Russians in connection with the explosion and said the pair carried passports used by suspects in the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain in 2018.

The two Russians were identified as Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepigov based on video footage from the site and photos published after the Skripal attack, according to Czech media.

But Russia on Sunday called the claims “absurd”, and retaliated with an announcement that 20 employees of the Czech embassy in Moscow had been declared “persona non grata” and must leave the country by the end of Monday.

Russia announced the retaliatory measures against a background of a new spike in tensions between Moscow and the West over a litany of issues including Russia’s troop build-up on Ukraine’s border, interference in US elections and other perceived hostile activities.

The expulsions were unveiled after the Czech ambassador in

Moscow, Vitezslav Pivonka, was summoned by the Russian foreign ministry.

“Pivonka had been told that 20 employees of the Czech embassy in Moscow had been declared ‘persona non grata’,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“They have been ordered to leave our country by the end of April 19, 2021,” the ministry added, calling the Czech government’s decision to expel Russian diplomats “unprecedented” and a “hostile act”.