Prague, March 21 (CTK) – “An absolute lie”, Czech PM Andrej Babis said today about Moscow’s allegation that the poison used to attack former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain might have come from the Czech Republic, and he dismissed speculations about his cabinet taking a sluggish approach to the affair.
The cabinet has assigned the Foreign Ministry to negotiate and announce positions, Babis (ANO) told a press conference after a cabinet meeting.
Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) has summoned Russian ambassador Alexander Zmeyevsky to the ministry for this morning to explain Russia’s statement that Novichok, the nerve agent used to attack Skripal in Salisbury, might have come from the Czech Republic.
Babis’s ANO minority government and also President Milos Zeman face the criticism from the opposition, which says the state should have reacted immediately after Moscow made the allegation last weekend.
In early March, Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by Novichok, a combat substance. Britain said Russia was responsible for the attack.
Dismissing the accusation, Moscow said the poison might have come from the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Sweden.
Stropnicky protested against the allegation immediately.
On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the reactions by the Czech Republic and Sweden, which had also rejected the allegation, changed nothing in the fact that these countries had the possibility to develop agents of the Novichok type.