Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said he expected more support and solidarity from the European Union in his country’s spat with Russia and the expulsion of diplomats following explosions at an ammunition depot six years ago.
“We must always see any attack on one member country as an attack on all of us,” Babis said on the sidelines of an EU social affairs summit in Porto, Portugal, according to a report by Czech news agency CTK on Saturday.
The Czech security services say Russian intelligence agents were behind explosions at an ammunition depot in 2014 in which two people were killed. Russia denies the allegations.
Prague has expelled 18 Russian diplomats and Moscow has expelled 20 Czech diplomats in response.
Slovakia has expelled three Russian diplomats, and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have each expelled one.
On Saturday, Babis called on other EU member states to also consider expelling “at least one Russian diplomat.”
Moscow called Babis’ comments a provocation. The Czech Republic was pushing the EU into “a new diplomatic crisis in the relations with Russia,” Leonid Sluzki, head of the Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a tweet.
Source : Agencies
