Charge d’Affaires of the Russian Federation in the United States, Sergei Koshelev, was summoned to the State Department, reported on April 24 on the page of the Russian embassy on Twitter.
how clarified At the State Department’s Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, the Charge d’Affaires was called in to “express concern about the destabilizing actions that Russia continues to carry out in the Euro-Atlantic region.”
According to the Russian embassy, the diplomat firmly denied the accusations against Russia during his visit to the State Department.
The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on measures to influence unfriendly actions of other countries. The document is aimed at protecting the interests and security of Russia.
On the same day, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats in solidarity with the Czech Republic. On April 22, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger, also announced that the country was expelling three employees of the Russian embassy. The decision was explained by “a reaction to recent events in the geopolitical sphere” and solidarity with the Czech Republic.
On April 17, Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babis announced that the country’s authorities suspect the Russian special services of involvement in the explosion at an ammunition depot in Vrbetica in 2014. On the same day, the Czech Republic announced its decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats, Gazeta.ru notes. It was reported that the employees of the diplomatic department were “identified by the country’s special services as officers of the GRU and SVR.”
Moscow, in response, announced 20 employees of the Czech embassy in the Russian Federation persona non grata. The Russian side categorically rejected the accusations, and the fact that Prague does not publish the report on the explosion, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called evidence of a lie.