The expulsion of two Russian diplomats is likely to have some impact on the Russian-Czech economic relationship, the deputy head of the Rossotrudnichestvo agency, Mikhail Brykhanov, told Sputnik on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th June, 2020) The expulsion of two Russian diplomats is likely to have some impact on the Russian-Czech economic relationship, the deputy head of the Rossotrudnichestvo agency, Mikhail Brykhanov, told Sputnik on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis announced that two Russian diplomats were declared personae non gratae in the country. Shortly after the announcement, Rossorudnichestvo confirmed to Sputnik that the two diplomats were its employees, one of them was the acting head of the agency's regional office. The Russian Embassy in Prague called the situation with the expulsion a "fabricated provocation."
"If we say that politics is a reflection of economy, then I'm surprised because we have good, mutually beneficial ties between business, Czech cars enjoy a well-deserved popularity on the Russian market. I doubt that all these stories can have no impact on this burgeoning economic cooperation. I want to hear how the Czech businesspeople would appraise the actions of their politicians, whether it will harm their business," Bryukhanov said.
The Russian official highly praised the high-tech cooperation between Russia and the Czech Republic, in particular.
As for the agency itself, it will have to find a new employee who speaks Czech language, which is quite rare.
"Andrei Konchakov [the acting head of Rossotrudnichestvo's center in Prague] studied the language in the Czech Republic, he is a high-qualified and experienced employee, it is a serious loss for the agency. We will now have to search for a new employee and it is not that easy, as the Czech language is rare," Bryukhanov said.
Rossotrudnichestvo specializes in cooperation with other countries.
In early May, Prague online outlet Seznam published a conversation of its correspondent with a person named Andrei Viktorovich K., who was introduced as a manager of a Russian Federal agency working in the Czech capital, with a diplomatic status. The media called him a person who allegedly brought ricin poison to the country in early April. Czech tv suggested that Konchakov was the person in question. Rossotrudnichestvo reacted immediately, calling these reports a provocation.
