Skripal poisoners blew up an ammunition depot in the Czech Republic: Prague expels Russian diplomats

The Czech Republic is expelling 18 Russian diplomats due to suspicions of the involvement of Russian intelligence services in an explosion at an ammunition depot in 2014. Czech police said they were looking for Russians Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov in connection with an investigation into “circumstances related to serious criminal offenses.” Russia responded by expelling 20 Czech diplomats from the country, writes Air force.

Photo: Shutterstock

Why are diplomats expelled

The expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats at an emergency press conference on Saturday, April 17, was announced by Prime Minister Andrei Babis and Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek, who combines the post of Czech Foreign Minister with the post of Interior Minister.

Hamacek decided to expel those diplomats who are suspected of working for two Russian intelligence services - the GRU and the SVR. They were "clearly identified by our secret services," the minister said.

According to Prime Minister Babis, there are reasonable suspicions that agents of these special services were involved in the explosion of an ammunition depot in the village of Vrbetice near the city of Zlin, which occurred in 2014 and claimed the lives of two people, Radio Prague reports.

Diplomats are required to leave the Czech Republic within 48 hours. Hamacek admitted that their expulsion would seriously undermine Prague's relations with Moscow.

“But we have to react,” he said. “We are in the same situation as the UK during the attempted poisoning [of the Skripals] in Salisbury in 2018,” the minister said (quoted by TASS).

On March 4, 2018, in the city of Salisbury in the UK, former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter were attacked using the Novichok nerve agent. The British prosecutor's office accused the Russians Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov in absentia of attack, adding that they considered these names to be fictitious.

Boshirov and Petrov wanted

The Czech police on Saturday, April 17, issued a separate statement that two men with Russian passports issued in the name of Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov were put on the wanted list.

On Twitter, the police posted a photo of the same men who were shown in 2018 by the British police as suspects in the Skripal poisoning and who gave an interview to Margarita Simonyan from RT channel, explaining that they went to Salisbury to admire the sights.

Národní centrála proti organizovanemu zločinu SKPV, žádá v souvislosti s prověřováním okolností závažné trestné činnosti o pomoc při pátrání po dvou osobách. https://t.co/SJ5Opg5gXD#policypp pic.twitter.com/oACMrPYSbg

- Policie (R (@PolicieCZ) April 17, 2021

The police are asking for help in the search “in connection with the investigation of circumstances related to serious criminal offenses,” without specifying what exactly.

The police also report that these two people were in the Czech Republic from October 11 to October 16, 2014 - first in Prague, and then in the Moravian-Silesian and Zlín regions. In addition to Russian passports in the name of Boshirov and Petrov, they used a Moldovan passport in the name of Nikolai Popa and a Tajik passport in the name of Ruslan Tabarov.

Hamáček said on Czech television that the Czech Republic will turn to Russia with a request to assist in the investigation and will try to interrogate the wanted persons. The minister, however, does not expect that this step will lead to success, since the Russian Federation does not extradite its citizens to foreign countries for prosecution, Radio Prague reports.

The police statement said nothing about an ammunition depot in the eastern village of Vrbetice. The explosions in the warehouse occurred on October 16 and then December 3, 2014.

Warehouses No. 16 and No. 12 were destroyed, killing two personnel. The Military Technical Institute leased warehouses to companies engaged in the trade of military materials under license. Both warehouses were rented by the Imex Group from Ostrava, Radio Prague notes.

The DPA reports that they contained anti-personnel mines.

In the fall of 2018, the Bellingcat project and The Insider published an investigation according to which Boshirov’s real name is Anatoly Chepiga, and Petrova’s real name is Alexander Mishkin. Investigators called them GRU officers. The BBC Russian service was then able to confirm Bellingcat's information by examining several Russian databases obtained from anonymous sources. Moscow denies any involvement in the Salisbury attack.

On the subject: The White House froze the property of the Russian authorities in the United States: what else is in the new sanctions

Moscow reaction

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed a strong protest in connection with Prague’s “hostile step” and announced the retaliatory expulsion of 20 Czech diplomats from the country.

“The Czech authorities made an unprecedented decision to expel 18 employees of the Russian embassy under unfounded and far-fetched pretexts about the involvement of Russian special services in the 2014 explosion at military warehouses in the village of Vrbetice. This is all the more absurd, since previously the Czech leadership blamed the explosions on the companies that own these warehouses,” the department said in a statement released on Sunday, April 18.

“This hostile step was a continuation of a series of anti-Russian actions taken by the Czech Republic in recent years,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said

“One cannot help but see the American trace. In an effort to please the United States against the backdrop of recent American sanctions against Russia, the Czech authorities even surpassed their overseas masters in this regard,” the statement notes.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Czech Ambassador Vitezslav Pivonka and informed him that 20 employees of the Czech Embassy in Moscow had been declared “persona non grata.”

“They are ordered to leave the territory of our country before the end of the day on April 19, 2021,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Sputnik and nuclear power plant

Prime Minister Babis said that he had informed President Milos Zeman of the findings of the Czech special services, and he fully supported the actions of the Czech Foreign Ministry. According to him, consultations are also underway with partners in the EU and NATO.

The conflict could influence the decision on whether Russia will be invited to participate in the tender for the construction of a new power unit at the Dukovany nuclear power plant, Industry Minister Karel Havlicek told Reuters. One of the contenders for completion of construction is Rosatom, the Czech intelligence services are against it.

On Friday, April 16, it became known that Foreign Minister Hamacek canceled a planned trip to Moscow, during which he was supposed to negotiate the purchase of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. Both the opposition and coalition partners criticized him for these plans, writes Deutsche Welle.

The US Embassy in the Czech Republic announced its support for the decision of its ally to hold Russia accountable for dangerous actions on Czech soil.

“The United States stands with its steadfast Ally, the Czech Republic. We appreciate their significant action to impose costs on Russia for its dangerous actions on Czech soil.” — CdA Jennifer Bachus https://t.co/Qx71P3T08r

— US Embassy Prague ???? (@USEmbassyPrague) April 17, 2021

Thursday, April 15, United States announced the expulsion of 10 employees of the Russian diplomatic mission. On the same day, Poland declared three Russian diplomats persona non grata, declaring solidarity with Washington and its response to Moscow’s “hostile actions.” Russia then decided to expel five Polish diplomats.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

"Ricin scandal"

Reuters describes the expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats as the biggest scandal between Russia and the Czech Republic, a NATO and EU member, since the end of the communist era in the country's history in 1989.

Last April, relations between the Czech Republic and Russia deteriorated due to the “ricin scandal.” It began with a report from the Czech publication Respekt that the police had taken under protection the mayor of Prague, Zdenek Hřib, and the head of the administrative district of Prague 6, Ondrzej Kolář.

Referring to its sources, the publication wrote that a Russian allegedly arrived in the Czech Republic on a diplomatic passport, intending to poison these politicians with ricin poison. Kolář, as the head of the district, was responsible for dismantling the monument to Marshal Ivan Konev in Prague, and Hřib was responsible for renaming the square in front of the Russian Embassy in honor of Boris Nemtsov.

In June, the Czech Republic declared persona non grata and ordered two employees of the Russian Embassy to leave the country. Czech intelligence services concluded that there was an “internal struggle” between them, as a result of which one of the diplomatic mission employees reported false information about a planned attack on local politicians. Czech radio reported that the expulsion was related to the “ricin scandal.”

“This caused complications in Czech-Russian relations and damaged the good name of the Russian Federation,” Prime Minister Babis said at the time. The Russian Embassy, ​​in turn, declared a “fabricated provocation” and an “unfriendly step” based on unsubstantiated accusations in the media.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• In September 2018, the British police named as suspected of poisoning ex-GRU colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. The Scotland Yard report emphasized that these names may not be real, as well as the documents of these people. Prime Minister Theresa May said that, according to intelligence agencies, Petrov and Boshirov are cadres of "Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU." Later, these people gave interviews to the RT channel. They said that they were in Salisbury on the dates indicated, but went there exclusively for tourist purposes: to see the famous cathedral. They in every possible way denied their involvement in the poisoning and in the work in the GRU.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Problems that await Russian people in the United States: the experience of immigrants

FSB detained Ukrainian consul in St. Petersburg: Kiev is outraged

The US Embassy warns Americans of the growing threat in Ukraine from Russia

Russia will send 10 American diplomats in response to US sanctions

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.