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The Czech Republic will expel 18 Russian diplomats on suspicion that Russia’s security services were involved in explosions at a Czech ammunition depot in 2014.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said that, based on “unequivocal evidence” from the Czech security services, there was a “well-founded suspicion” that officers from Russia’s GRU military intelligence unit 29155 were involved in the explosions near the village of Vrbetice, in which two people died.
“The Czech Republic is a sovereign state and must respond accordingly to these unprecedented findings,” Babis said in a brief statement Saturday evening, adding that investigations were continuing.
Russian officials denied there had been any Russian involvement in the blasts. Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy director of the international relations committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, said the Czech accusations were “nonsense.”
“We have never done anything like this in our lives. It’s ridiculous. Why do we have to exploit something in the Czech Republic? ”He told the Russian news agency Tass. “This is just a situation invented to support Americans.”
Czech expulsions come amid growing concern in Western capitals over a Russian military accumulation on the border with Ukraine, as well as a renewed period of tensions between Washington and Moscow.
On Thursday, the United States imposed new sanctions on Russia, including people and companies accused of participating in efforts to interfere in the US elections and carry out cyber attacks. Russia attacked the next day expelling 10 American diplomats and the imposition of restrictions on those authorized to remain in the country.
Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said Czech-Russian relations would inevitably suffer as a result of the last row, but that the Czech Republic had no choice but to react to information provided by its security services. .
“We are in a similar situation in the United Kingdom in the case of. . . attempted poisoning in Salisbury, ”he said, referring to the attempted assassination of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal in 2018.
Russia has denied any involvement in the assassination attempt, which was carried out with a nervous agent novichok.
Hamacek said the 18 Russians who were to be expelled from the Czech Republic had been identified as workers of the Russian intelligence agencies GRU and SVR and would have 48 hours to leave the country.
Meanwhile, the Czech police issued a application to get help in the search for two men who according to his statement had been in the Czech Republic from 11 to 16 October 2014, the day of the explosion at the ammunition dump.
He said the men had carried several passports, including Russian ones, in the name of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, aliases used by two Russian intelligence officers. loaded by the United Kingdom with the attempted assassination of Skripal.
Both men denied any involvement in the assassination attempt, claiming they were sports nutritionists who had traveled to Salisbury to see the famous English city cathedral.
However, the assassination attempt provoked one of the biggest waves of tit-for-tat expulsions between the west and Russia since the end of the Cold War.
U.S. Affairs Officer in Prague Jennifer Bachus said the United States was on the side of the Czech Republic, which she described as a “strong ally.”
“We are grateful for his important action to impose costs on Russia for its dangerous actions on Czech soil,” he said.
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