PRAGUE (AP) – The two Russian military agents suspected of being behind a massive Czech depot explosion in 2014 are likely to have targeted the ammunition, not the Czech Republic itself, the country’s prime minister and prosecutor general said on Monday.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said he did not view the Russian actions as an act of state terrorism, but said the presence of GRU agents was absolutely unacceptable. ‘
“We are a sovereign state and it is unacceptable for foreign agents to carry out such operations here,” Babis said.
On Sunday, Russia ordered 20 Czech diplomats to leave the country within a day in response to the Czech government’s expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats it identified as spies from the GRU and the SVR, Russian military and foreign intelligence services. Both parties sent government planes on Monday to take the envoys and their families home.
Pavel Zeman, the Czech prosecutor general, said the ammunition targeted was mostly intended to be sent to an arms dealer in Bulgaria and to be deliberately detonated after delivery. Two people were killed in an explosion at Vrbetice in 2014.
“The explosion would not have taken place in the Czech Republic,” Zeman said.
Zeman said the two Russian suspects were using false identities on passports from Tajikistan and Moldova when they booked a visit to the depot. They stayed in Prague and the eastern city of Ostrava, about a two-hour drive from the depot in the eastern Czech Republic.
The suspects also used Russian passports to travel to the Czech Republic.
Their names and photos match two Russians who were charged by the British authorities in absentia in 2018 for trying to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with Soviet nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury.
“The two were identified in 2018 as the attackers in Salisbury,” Zeman said.
Zeman said because the investigation had not been completed, authorities could not release further details about the case and rejected Babis’ request to publish it. Babis said his government was considering claiming damages from the Russians.
Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, who is also acting foreign minister, said on Monday that the Russian expulsion of Czech diplomats had effectively paralyzed the Czech embassy in Moscow.
“We should have expected this to happen, but the Czech Republic did nothing wrong,” Hamacek said. “It is we who are the victims of the Russian actions.”
Babis said the Czechs would “definitely” respond to what is seen as an excessive Russian move.
The Czech government has also decided not to allow the Russian state-owned Rosatom nuclear corporation to participate in a tender for the planned construction of a nuclear reactor at its Dukovany nuclear power plant.
The Czech intelligence services have repeatedly warned against allowing Russian and Chinese companies to bid in the multi-million dollar tender, saying they pose a security risk due to ties with their respective governments.