The Czech Republic is expelling 18 Russian diplomats on suspicion that Russian intelligence services were involved in an explosion of an ammunition depot in 2014, its government said on Saturday.
The Central European country is a NATO and EU member state, and the evictions and allegations have caused its greatest struggle with Russia since the end of the communist era in 1989.
His actions could prompt Russia to close the Czech embassy in Moscow, a Russian news agency Interfax was quoted as saying.
The Czech Prime Minister, Andrej Babis, said in an information session live on television that there was a well-founded suspicion about the involvement of officers of the Russian intelligence service GRU … in the explosion of an ammunition depot in the Vrbetice environment.’
Several explosions shook the Vrbetice depot, 330 km (205 miles) southeast of Prague, in October 2014, killing two employees of a private company that leased the site from a state military organization.
Babis calls the circumstances ‘unprecedented and scandalous’, while a Russian lawmaker quoted by Interfax describes his allegation as absurd.
The US embassy in Prague said on Twitter that Washington “stands with its staunch ally, the Czech Republic. We appreciate their significant efforts to impose Russia on its dangerous actions on Czech soil.”
Acting Czech Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek said the 18 Russian embassy staff, identified as secret service personnel, were ordered to leave within 48 hours.
SWITCH TO WRITING POISONING?
Hamacek drew a parallel with the poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Britain in 2018, and Czech police separately said they were looking for two men carrying Russian passports in connection with serious criminal activities in the name of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
These were the aliases used by two Russian military intelligence officials who charged British prosecutors with Skripal’s attempted murder. They and Moscow both denied involvement. read more
Hamacek said he “decided to expel all staff at the Russian embassy in Prague, who were clearly identified by our secret services, as officers of the Russian secret services, SVR and GRU.”
The Interfax news agency quoted Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the House of Commons’ International Affairs Committee, as saying that Prague’s allegations were absurd and that Russia’s response should be proportionate.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent in March 2018 in the English city of Salisbury.
The attack resulted in the largest spate of diplomatic expulsions between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
Czech police said Petrov and Boshirov, whose birth names gave British government documents as Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepigas, also used a Moldovan passport in the name of Nicolai Popa and a Tajik one issued in the name of Ruslan Tabarov is.
Police said both men were believed to be in the Czech Republic from October 11 to October 16, 2014, the day of the explosion. They were first in Prague and later in the eastern regions, this is where the depot is located.
Russia would not extradite them, Interfax said with an unnamed source.
“Russia’s main law prohibits the extradition to a foreign state of Russian citizens who are accused of committing a crime on the territory of a foreign state,” the source said.
Babis said the Czech investigation linked the suspects to a Russian military intelligence GRU unit 29155.
The New York Times reported in 2019 that 29155 is an elite unit in the Russian intelligence system skilled in subversion, sabotage and assassination.
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