Sunday April 18, 2021
Moscow involved in attack?
Prague has 18 Russian diplomats
In 2014 an ammunition store exploded in the Czech Republic. Now the government in Prague has submitted information that Russian agents are responsible for the detonation. The authorities also establish a connection to the poison attack on the ex-double spy Skripal.
The Czech Republic accuses Russia of being involved in an ammunition dump explosion in 2014. In response to this, 18 Russian embassy employees are being expelled who have been clearly identified as employees of the SWR and GRU secret services, said Interior Minister Jan Hamacek in Prague. You would have to leave the country within 48 hours.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis spoke of clear evidence. “The Czech Republic is a sovereign state and has to respond appropriately to these unprecedented revelations,” said the 66-year-old. Several explosions occurred in the ammunition dump in Vrbetice in the east of the Czech Republic in October and December 2014. Two people were killed and there was enormous property damage.
Moscow responded promptly. Prague is very aware of what follows “such tricks”, said the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Sakharova, according to the Interfax agency. Vladimir Jabarov from the Federation Council said: “The response should be proportionate.” Other politicians in Moscow expressed their incomprehension.
The special unit of the Czech police for the fight against organized crime published two mug shots. You agree with those of two suspects who are wanted in the UK in connection with the nerve agent attack on former double spy Sergei Skripal. The alleged GRU spies are said to have been in the Czech Republic for six days in mid-October 2014 and also visited the region in which the ammunition depot in question is located. They would have used Russian passports with the names Alexander Petrow and Ruslan Boschirow.
The ammunition depot was used by commercial armaments companies. Hundreds of anti-personnel mines were stored there. After the explosions, thousands of soldiers spent two years defusing duds and ammunition components and making the area safe again.
The government’s announcement in Prague comes shortly after a heated dispute over Hamacek’s trip to Moscow, which was originally planned for Monday. The minister canceled the visit on Saturday after both the opposition and the prime minister sharply criticized the project. Hamacek wanted to negotiate in Russia about any deliveries of the Sputnik V corona vaccine. The last time there was violent tension in April 2020 after a statue for Soviet World War I general Ivan Konev was removed in Prague.
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