Russia denounced the agreement on the Czech consulate in Yekaterinburg

The Russian government decided to denounce the agreement with the Czech Republic on the establishment of the Czech Consulate General in Yekaterinburg. It has worked for more than 20 years, since 2001.

The order is published on the legal information portal. It is stated that the decision was taken on the recommendation of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Relations between Russia and the Czech Republic, as well as with most other EU countries, are now extremely tense.

Since February 25 of last year, the consulate has not worked – the Czech authorities suspended its work, as well as the activity of the consulate in St. Petersburg, immediately after the beginning of the Russian large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The work of Czech diplomatic institutions in Russia was also hampered earlier, after the expulsion of a large number of their employees – after the expulsion in 2021 of employees of the Russian embassy in Prague in connection with the case of explosions in Vrbetica.

In March last year, by the decision of the Czech authorities, the Russian Consulates General in Brno and Karlovy Vary also suspended their work. It is not yet clear whether the Czech authorities will finally close one of these diplomatic missions.

The embassies of the two countries continue to operate in Prague and Moscow, albeit with an extremely limited number of diplomats. Since last year, the Czech Republic practically does not issue visas to Russians – with the exception of humanitarian ones.