Russia vows retaliation after Czech Republic expels 18 diplomats over 2014 ammunition depot blast

Moscow has denied that it was behind the blast, saying the ‘hostile move’ is part of a continuation of anti-Russian actions undertaken by the Czech Republic in recent years

Police identified two suspects as the same Russian intelligence officers wanted by Britain for the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018

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Riot police guard the area as protesters gather in front of the Russian Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic, on Sunday. Photo: AP

Published: 10:00pm, 18 Apr 2021Updated: 10:02pm, 18 Apr 2021

Russia on Sunday said Czech accusations that Russian spy services were behind an explosion in an ammunition depot were unfounded and absurd and it would retaliate for Prague’s expulsion of 18 Russian embassy staff.

The Czech Republic said it had informed Nato and European Union allies about suspected Russian involvement in the blast, which killed two people, and the matter would be addressed at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday.

The expulsions and allegations by the Czechs have triggered its biggest dispute with Russia since the 1989 end of Communist rule, when Prague was under Moscow’s domination for decades.

The incident also poured more fuel on the worst Russian-Western tensions since the Cold War, stirred in part by Russia’s military build-up on its Western borders and in Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, after a surge in fighting between government and rebel forces in Ukraine’s east.

The Czech Republic kicked out the Russian embassy staff on Saturday after saying investigations had linked Russian intelligence to the blast in the ammunition depot some 300km (210 miles) east of the capital Prague.