It noted that the Czech authorities made an ‘unprecedented’ decision and with ‘unfounded and unreasonable pretexts’ about the participation of Russian special services in the 2014 explosion in the military warehouses in the village of Vrbetice, the document said.

‘We express our resolute protest to the Czech authorities,’ the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Moscow also warned that retaliatory measures ‘will make the authors of this provocation realize their full responsibility in destroying the foundations of the normal development of relations between our countries.’

It stressed that this ‘hostile step’ is part of a series of anti-Russian actions taken by the Czech Republic in recent years and evidence ‘an effort to please the United States in the context of its recent sanctions against Russia.’

The day before, Czech Prime Minister, Andrei Babish, and the First Deputy Prime Minister, Jan Gamachek, announced the expulsion of 18 employees of the Russian embassy in Prague, who, according to the Czech side, are ‘officials of the Russian special services’.

They were also accused of being involved in the explosion of a munitions depot in the town of Vrbtice, in the east of the country, in 2014.

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