Russia rebuffs Czech accusations of role in 2014 blast

MOSCOW

Russia on Monday firmly rebuffed claims that its intelligence agencies were involved in a 2014 explosion in the Czech Republic.

"We categorically disagree with such conclusions, consider them provocative and unfriendly," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a teleconference in Moscow.

In a separate statement, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the US was behind the incident and that the Czech Republic and Poland had expelled Russian diplomats on "political orders" from Washington.

Zakharova accused the EU of using Russia to distract its own people from mounting domestic problems and the US of trying to divert attention from an attempt to assassinate Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Zakharova also said Prague's move was an attempt to "milk" the large budgets that Western countries allocate to "spreading disinformation about Russia."

She said the Czech Republic's unwillingness to publish the data on Russia's involvement in the 2014 explosion was evidence that the accusations were false.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested two people on Saturday over plotting to kill Lukashenko and mount a coup in Belarus.

Lukashenko accused the US of being behind the group and said Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the issue of a US assassination attempt in a conversation with his American counterpart Joe Biden but got no answer.

Peskov also said Putin asked Biden about a planned coup and Belarus.

However, he claimed that Biden would not address the possible involvement of US intelligence in the affair, saying that "all information that can be given out is given out by special services at their discretion."

However, he said the plans voiced by the arrested Belarusian suspects were "dangerous."