Russia orders two Czech diplomats to leave the nation in retaliation

Russia has expelled two Czech diplomats from the country after Prague ordered Russian officials to leave the country amid spiralling tensions between both the nations. According to reports, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said that it summoned the Czech ambassador Vitezslav Pivonka to inform him that ‘two employees of the Czech Embassy in Moscow are declared personas non-gratae’ and are ordered to leave the nation by the morning of June 17. This came after the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said that the country discovered that one of the two diplomats from Russia spread untrue information about Russian assassin arriving to allegedly target Czech lawmakers. 

This plot of the alleged assassination had surfaced back in April when reportedly Czech intelligence services suspected that a Russian, who arrived in Prague with a diplomatic passport, had plans of poisoning Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib and Prague 6 district mayor, Ondrej Kolar, with a potent toxin. The suspicion was followed by Kolar, Hrib and mayor of Prague’s Reporyje district, Pavel Novotny receiving police protection. 

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Moscow dismissed allegation

Russia, on the other hand, has rejected all the allegations and called them ‘baseless’. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reportedly ridiculed the claims that were initially published in a magazine and said that Czech authorities found the man equipped with ricin and let him through, did not make any sense. All three politicians in Prague who were protected by the government were involved in actions that had angered Moscow. 

This year in April, Kolar had sanctioned the removal of Soviet World War II commander Ivan Konev’s statue from his district. Konev’s army was responsible for the liberation of Prague from Nazi occupation and the pulling down of his statue had angered Russia. In February, Hrib had unveiled the nameplate of a Prague square in front of the Russian Embassy which was renamed after slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

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(With inputs from agencies)

Image Source: AP