Russia classifies the United States and the Czech Republic as “unfriendly”

On Friday, May 14, Russia announced that it had placed the Czech Republic and the United States on the list of countries. “Unfriendly», In a period of ongoing tensions between Moscow and Western countries.

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According to a government decree signed on Thursday, but published on Friday on the official Russian portal, the two countries were announced.UnfriendlyAs a result of strict restrictions on the Czech Republic and a complete ban on the United States to employ Russian employees in their embassies in Moscow. The signing of this decree comes a few days before the first meeting of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin and the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov. This week, the US embassy had already announced the suspension of most of its consular services due to Russian sanctions, after it had forced it to separate from and cut all its local employees.Its workforce at 75%».

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Foreign Ministry at the end of April 2021 to prepare a list of “Hostile states” in order to “Protection of interests and securityfrom Russia. “Moscow has always stressed its desire for dialogueOn Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on what was reported by TASS news agency, stressing that only these two countries were included in the list, while Russian media reported a total of ten countries, including the United Kingdom.

US-Russian relations continued to deteriorate amid accusations from Washington of interfering in the 2020 US presidential elections, espionage and cyberattacks. In April, the Biden administration ordered new sanctions against Russia-linked entities, fired 10 diplomats, and banned U.S. banks from directly purchasing Russian debt.

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Meanwhile, a number of Western capitals, especially in Eastern Europe, have increased expulsions of Russian diplomats in recent weeks. Prague took the lead in this movement, after the Czech government accused the Russian secret services of blowing up an armory. Moscow has taken retaliatory measures and expelled diplomats from the countries concerned.