MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th April, 2021) The change in tone in Czech President Milos Zeman's latest statement on the Vrbetice scandal shows that Prague began to understand it has made fool of itself by alleging Russia's involvement, Russian lower house chairman Viacheslav Volodin said on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Zeman admitted that Czech intelligence reports about the 2014 blasts at Vrbetice ammunition depots contained no evidence of Russian involvement and did not even mention Russia. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis used this allegation last week to justify the expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats, triggering a succession of tit-for-tats.
"It seems that Prague has started to understand that by creating an international scandal out of nothing, it harmed primarily itself and made fool of itself," Volodin wrote on Telegram, acknowledging Zeman's merit for "taking an objective stance in a difficult situation."
The Czech Republic "cornered itself" and puzzled its Western allies by ruining years of diplomatic efforts to build the relationship, according to the Russian official. Prague apparently wanted to score points and get EU and NATO countries to follow suit and expel Russian diplomats, Volodin believes.
"No self-respecting country acts this way," he added.
Petr Tolstoy, the deputy chairman of the Russian lower house and the head of the Russian delegation to PACE, praised Zeman's statement as a shift away from bulking unfounded accusations around Moscow.
"Zeman's statement is the first instance of doing away with the principle of 'highly likely' that was used to accuse Russia of all mortal sins. I do not doubt that sooner or later the rest of the false accusations against our country will be discredited as well," Tolstoy said on Telegram.
On April 17, Prague announced that 18 Russian diplomats would be expelled from the country on suspicion of being officers of Russia's special services. Moscow retaliated by expelling 20 Czech diplomats, prompting Prague to order more diplomats out of the country in response.
