Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on a tweet from Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulganek, in which he thanked Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Great Britain for supporting Prague’s position in the conflict with Russia. On Friday, April 23, she wrote about this on her Facebook page.
Zakharova, in connection with the expulsion of Russian diplomats, noted that during these days she recalled a lot of Czech classics.
“Now you can quote Chapek:“ Locusts are a natural disaster, although alone they are not scary at all. The same thing … “- wrote the diplomat and suggested that we find the continuation of the quote ourselves.
The original quote by Karel Chapek, cited by Zakharova, ends with the words “the same with fools.”
Earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jakub Kulganek on his Twitter thanked Great Britain and Baltic countries for solidarity towards Russia. According to Kulganek, the Baltic countries have always been “very close friends” of the Czech Republic, and, having shown solidarity with the Czech side, they confirmed this.
Earlier that day, Estonia, as well as Latvia and Lithuania announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats in solidarity with the Czech Republic. At the same time, on the eve of the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger, also said that the country is expelling three employees of the Russian Embassy. This decision was explained by “reaction to recent events in the geopolitical sphere” and solidarity with the Czech Republic.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said to this that the diplomats of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia may already begin to guess which of them will leave Moscow in the near future.
Diplomatic relations between Moscow and Prague have escalated after Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babis announced on April 17 that the country’s authorities suspected Russian special services of involvement in the explosion at an ammunition depot in Vrbetica in 2014. The republic announced its decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats.
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 a report on the explosion, Zakharova called evidence of a lie.
In addition, on April 20, the Czech Republic called on its NATO and EU allies to expel Russian diplomats as a sign of solidarity. At the same time, the Foreign Ministers of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Slovakia and Hungary) expressed solidarity with the latest actions taken by the Czech authorities in relation to Russia.