PRAGUE – The Czech Republic announced the expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats in response to the alleged involvement of Russian secret agents Svr and Gru in the massive explosion of an ammunition depot in 2014. According to a diplomatic source cited by Reuters, the expulsion could lead Russia to decide to close the embassy in Prague.
The prime minister Andrej Babis he assured that the decision is based on “unequivocal evidence” provided by the Czech secret and security services indicating the involvement of Russian military agents in the massive explosion in an eastern city that killed “two innocent fathers”. “The Czech Republic is a sovereign state and must react appropriately to these unprecedented discoveries,” Babis said. “The explosion caused enormous material damage and represented a serious threat to the lives of many local people, but above all it killed two of our fellow citizens, fathers of families”.
Babis also said the president Milos Zeman, who is known for his pro-Russian views, was briefed on developments and “expressed absolute support for us”.
The Minister of the Interior Jan hamacek, who is also interim foreign minister after his predecessor left the government earlier this week, said the 18 employees of the Russian embassy were clearly identified as Russian military spies and ordered to leave. the country within 48 hours.
Hamacek said he was sorry that the incident would “fundamentally damage Czech-Russian relations”. “We are in a similar situation to Britain after the attempted Salisbury poisoning in 2018,” he said, referring to the case of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal who survived nerve agent poisoning in Britain.
Skripal case, here are the links with the secret services of the two men accused from London
Rosalba Castelletti
In that case, Britain expelled scores of Russian diplomats after Russian agents used a Soviet-era nerve agent to poison a former Russian spy and her daughter who lived in the English city of Salisbury.
Hamacek said he summoned the Russian ambassador Aleksandr Zmeyevskij tonight to communicate the decision.
The Vrbetice explosion
The explosion occurred on October 16, 2014, in a depot in the city of Vrbetice that held 50 tons of ammunition, causing the death of two people. Another explosion of 13 tons of ammunition occurred in the depot on December 3 of the same year.
The Russian reaction
The Prague government is “well aware” of the consequences of the decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats, said the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. Maria Zakharova, quoted by the news agency Sputnik.
He spoke in more detail on the matter Vladimir Dzhabarov, Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Council of the Russian Federation. According to the agency Interfax, Dzhabarov called the allegations of Russian military intelligence involvement in the explosion at a military depot in the Czech Republic “nonsense” and announced that Moscow’s response will be proportionate.
The search for men with double passports
In a separate episode, Czech police said they were looking for men with double passports, including the two Russians named Aleksandr Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, the aliases used by the two GRU agents responsible according to London for the attempted assassination of Skripal in March 2018.
The new Cold War. Moscow sends 150 diplomats away
Rosalba Castelletti
Russia denied involvement, but some 300 diplomats were sent home in subsequent “eye-for-an-eye” expulsions.
The Polish precedent
On Thursday, Poland, bordering the Czech Republic, announced that it had expelled three Russian diplomats for “carrying out activities to the detriment of Poland”. Warsaw also expressed solidarity with the United States, which earlier that day had announced sanctions and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats in retaliation for what Washington said the Kremlin interfered in the American elections, a massive cyber attack and other hostile activities.
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