Czech Republic and Russia reopen long-standing conflict and find themselves embroiled in cross-expulsion of diplomats

PARIS – In the midst of a standoff with Washington, a new front of conflict with the West is opening up to Russian President Vladimir Poutine. Prague yesterday accused Moscow of being involved in the explosion of an ammunition depot in 2014 and announced the expulsion of a significant number of diplomats. Today Russia retaliated and sacked the staff of the Czech embassy in the country.

“The Czech government will expel 18 employees of the Russian embassy, ​​whom its intelligence services have identified as agents of the Moscow spy services,” Jan Hamacek, acting foreign minister of the country, announced yesterday.

In response, Russian authorities made the announcement after the Czech Ambassador to Moscow, Vitezslav Pivonka, was summoned by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Pivonka was informed “that 20 officials of the Czech Embassy in Moscow have been declared ‘persona non grata’The Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

the Prime Minister Andrei Babis explained that The Czech Republic “had irrefutable evidence” that implicates to the agents of unit GRU 29155, Russian military intelligence, in an explosion of 50 tons of ammunition in a warehouse in Vrbetice, in the east of the country. The attack caused the death of two people on October 16, 2014. On December 3 of the same year, 13 tons of ammunition also exploded unexplainably.

“The explosion caused immense material damage and endangered the lives of many people. But above all he killed two compatriots, ”added Babis, specifying that he had received the information on Friday, without explaining why it came so long later.

Russia announced yesterday that it would adopt “retaliatory measures” against the Czech Republic, the Foreign Ministry warned. According to a statement, the decision to expel 18 embassy employees is “based on an unfounded and implausible apology for the involvement of Russian special service agents in the 2014 explosion at the Vrbetice military depot”. “The accusation is even more absurd if we take into account the fact that the Czech government had previously accused the companies that owned the deposits of the explosion,” the text added.

But the most astonishing thing about this case is that, simultaneously, the Czech unit responsible for organized crime (NCOZ) published the photos of two men carrying Russian passports: Alexander Petrov, born in 1979, and Ruslan Bachirov, born in 1978, both identified. by Britain as “the poisoners” in 2018 of the former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter with Novichok, with a highly lethal nerve substance.

“The two men were present on Czech territory in October 2014” when the Vrbetice explosion occurred, NCOZ said, adding that they also had passports from Tajikistan and Moldova.

“We find ourselves in a situation similar to that of the United Kingdom immediately after the poisoning attempt in Salisbury”, admitted Minister Hamacek, adding that he had summoned the Russian ambassador, Alexander Zmeevsky, for last night .

Moscow has always denied any involvement in the Salisbury bombing, while the two men identified as Petrov and Boshirov maintained that they briefly visited that city’s historic cathedral as “mere tourists”. In turn, Putin said the two men identified as suspects by the British “were not criminals”.

These revelations “will affect Russian-Czech relations,” admitted Hamacek, who had just replaced his pro-European counterpart Thomas Petricek on an interim basis, while retaining his portfolio as Minister of the Interior.

Rejected for opposing the distribution of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V against Covid, Petricek also criticized a possible Russian involvement in a project in the nuclear sector.

The Kremlin denounces a series of anti-Russian actions taken by the Czech Republic in recent years. A situation which, in his opinion, is the result of interference by the United States. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, these expulsions are part of “a (Czech) effort to do good with Washington (…). The Czech government has even surpassed its transatlantic masters in this case, ”he concludes.

President Joe Biden’s administration announced last Thursday a new wave of sanctions against Russia, which he accuses of being responsible for massive cyber attacks and interference in the US presidential election in November. Moscow continues to deny any involvement and, in turn, has responded to Washington by expelling ten diplomats from the US embassy in Russia.

A day before the Czech announcement and immediately after the United States reported on the sanctions against Moscow, Poland in turn decided to expel three Russian diplomats accused of “hostile actions”.