© MICHAL CIZEK/AFP via Getty ImagesCzech Foreign Minister and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek answers journalists' questions after the arrival of members of the Czech Embassy in Russia at Vaclav Havel airport on April 19, 2021 in Prague, two days after the Czech Republic announced that it would expel 18 Russian diplomats that are suspected of involvement in a 2014 explosion. - The Czech government said on April 17 it would expel 18 Russian diplomats identified by local intelligence as secret agents of the Russian SVR and GRU services that are suspected of involvement in a 2014 explosion. Czech police also said later they were seeking two Russians in connection with the blast, which killed two people, with passports used by the suspects in the attempted poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in 2018.
The Czech Republic demanded on Wednesday that Russia allow its expelled diplomats to return to Moscow and threatened that, if not, more Russian diplomats would be asked to leave Prague.
The Czech request might further escalate a diplomatic conflict with Russia over the alleged involvement of Russian spies in a massive ammunition depot explosion.
New Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek gave the Russians a deadline of noon Thursday "to enable the return of all [Czech] expelled diplomats to the Czech embassy in Moscow." If not, he warned, "I will decide tomorrow afternoon to reduce the staff of the Russian embassy in Prague so their number equals the current number of staff at the Czech embassy in Moscow."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who said that the ministry summoned the Czech ambassador for Thursday, added in a statement carried by Russian news agencies: "We suggest that Prague leaves ultimatums for [its] communication within NATO. This kind of tone is unacceptable while talking to Russia."
For more reporting from The Associated Press, see below.
Kulhanek summoned Russian ambassador to Prague Aleksandr Zmeyevsky to protest what he called Russia's "inappropriate reaction."
Because of the high number of staffers at the Russian embassy in Prague, Kulhanek said that the Czech action "by no means" threatens its normal functioning.
But for the Czechs, the Russian move "paralyzed" their Moscow embassy.
Kulhanek said he agreed to the move with Prime Minister Andrej Babis and President Milos Zeman, who is known for his pro-Russian views.
"Czech-Russian relations have entered an extraordinary difficult phase and I, as a foreign minister, am not happy about it," he said.
The Czech demand came after Russia ordered 20 Czech diplomats to leave the country on Sunday, in retaliation for the Czech government's expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats it identified as spies from the GRU and the SVR, Russia's military and foreign intelligence services.
Czech leaders said on Saturday they have evidence provided by the intelligence and security services that points to the participation of two agents of GRU's elite Unit 29155 in the 2014 blast that killed two.
Russia denied that.
The same two Russians were charged by British authorities in absentia in 2018 with trying to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury.
Kulhanek made the statement just hours after he was sworn in Wednesday.
Before his meeting with the Russian ambassador, Kulhanek consulted NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and thanked him for his support "in these uneasy times." The Czech Republic-once part of Soviet Russia-controlled communist eastern Europe-is now a NATO member.
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