The Czech Republic is informing its NATO and European Union allies of Russia’s suspected involvement in the 2014 munitions explosion and will discuss the issue at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday, Acting Foreign Minister Jan Hamácek said on Twitter on Sunday.
The Central European country deported 18 Russian embassy staff on Saturday and said investigations had linked Russian intelligence to an explosion that killed two people.
Prague’s deportation and accusations sparked its biggest dispute with Russia since the end of the 1989 communist era.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Vladimir Jabarov, the first deputy chairman of Russia’s upper house’s foreign affairs committee, on Saturday as saying that Prague’s claims were absurd and that Russia’s response should be proportionate.
Separately, Czech police said on Saturday that they were looking for two men in connection with serious criminal activity with Russian passports in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, and that the men were in the country a few days before the explosion.
These were pseudonyms used by two Russian military intelligence officers accused by British prosecutors of attempting to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia with a nerve agent Novichok in the English town of Salisbury in 2018. Moscow has denied involvement in the incident.
The US Embassy in Prague said on Twitter on Saturday that Washington “supports its steadfast ally the Czech Republic. We appreciate their significant efforts to impose costs on Russia for its dangerous actions on Czech soil.”