Russian government approves list of unfriendly countries

The Russian government has approved a list of unfriendly countries. There are two names on the list - the United States and the Czech Republic. The instruction was uploaded to the official portal of legal information on Friday.

"… To approve the attached list of countries that commit unfriendly actions towards Russia, Russian citizens or Russian legal entities," the instruction says.

There are two countries on the list (the United States and the Czech Republic) to which measures will be applied in accordance with President Vladimir Putin's decree of April 23 imposing restrictions on hiring people living in Russia by diplomatic missions of unfriendly countries. The Czech Republic will be allowed to hire no more than 19 Russian nationals to work for its embassy, and the United States, not a single one.

The United States has repeatedly imposed anti-Russian sanctions in the recent years. The latest batch of anti-Russian sanctions was adopted in mid-April.

The Czech authorities said on April 17 that Russia had been allegedly behind the blasts at munitions depots in the village of Vrbetice in the east of the Czech Republic in 2014 and expelled 18 Russian diplomats who, it claimed, were officers of Russian intelligence services.