Thousands of people rallied in Prague on Thursday, accusing President Milos Zeman of being a "Kremlin puppet" amid a diplomatic crisis with Russia. "We don't have a head of state, we have a Kremlin puppet," said one protester, Jirina Sladkova. The rally was called by the anti-government group Million Moments for Democracy that organised a massive demonstration in 2019 that was the biggest in the Czech Republic since the fall of communism. The Czech Republic has accused Russia of being behind a fatal explosion at an arms depot in 2014 and has expelled dozens of Russian embassy staff. Slovakia, Romania and Baltic states have also ejected Russian diplomats in solidarity, prompting tit-for-tat expulsions of their diplomats in Moscow. "Russian agents assassinate and the president remains quiet!" the rally's organisers exclaimed. Zeman, who is left of centre and pro-Russian, has stayed fairly quiet since the row began this month but he took a rare swipe at Moscow last Sunday. "This president is not serving the interests of our country," Czech singer Michael Kocab said from a podium on Wenceslas Square at Thursday's rally. Kocab helped negotiate the departure of Soviet troops from the former Czechoslovakia in 1991 and is now behind a petition calling for Zeman to be tried for treason. bur-ar/dt/wai