23/04/2021 10:24
Czech Republic expels 63 Russian embassy employees
The Czech government has ruled to expel 63 employees of the Russian Embassy in Prague, Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said on Czech TV on Thursday.
"63 employees of the Russian embassy [will leave the Czech Republic] with members of their families," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Kulhanek said that the Czech Republic is reducing the number of employees of the Russian Embassy in Prague to correspond to the number of Czech diplomats in Moscow.
"We reduce the number of diplomats within the Russian diplomatic mission in Prague in accordance with the state of our embassy [staff] in Moscow. This decision enters into force today. Russia must call back its people [from the Czech Republic] by late May," the minister said.
Earlier, the Czech government stated that the republic’s embassy in Moscow has a lot fewer employees than the Russian diplomatic mission in Prague. Meanwhile, Rudolf Jindrak, head of the foreign department of the Czech president’s office, stated that the republic has "about 50 more" diplomats in Russia if the staff of all cultural and trade-economic missions is counted.