Prague expels 18 Russian diplomats for the explosion of an ammunition depot in 2014
The Czech Republic expels 18 Russian diplomats on suspicion that Russian intelligence was involved in an ammunition depot explosion in 2014, its government said Saturday.
Czechia is a member of NATO and this affair is causing the greatest disagreement with Russia in the last twenty years, despite the fact that relations have been normalized and overall good in recent years.
This action could prompt Russia to consider closing the Czech Republic embassy in Moscow, a diplomatic source cited by Russian news agency Interfax suggested.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said in a briefing broadcast live on television that there was "a suspicion based on the involvement of Russian secret service officers GRU … in the explosion of an ammunition depot in the Vrbetice area".
Several explosions shook the Vrbetice depot, 330 km (205 mi) southeast of Prague, in October 2014, killing two employees of a private company that was renting the site from a state military organization.
Babis called the circumstances "unprecedented and scandalous", while a Russian parliamentarian quoted by Interfax described his accusation as absurd.
The US Embassy in Prague said on Twitter that Washington "stands with its faithful ally, the Czech Republic. We appreciate their significant action to impose a price on Russia for its dangerous actions on Czech soil."
“USA stojí se svým stálým spojencem, Českou republikou. Kroků, na základě kterých Rusko musí nést následky svých nebezpečných činů na české půdě, si vážíme. " – Board of Directors Jennifer Bachus https://t.co/Qx71P3T08r
– US Embassy Prague
(@USEmbassyPrague) April 17, 2021
The interim Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Hamacek, confirmed that the 18 Russian embassy officials identified as connected to the secret services would be deported within 48 hours.
The Czech police also reported that they are actively searching for two men with Russian passports in connection with serious criminal activities in the name of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
These were the pseudonyms used by two Russian military intelligence officers accused by British prosecutors of the attempted murder of Skripal.
It is not difficult to see how in all of Western Europe, after the Biden elections, the confrontation with Moscow became harder, recalling the recent spying incident discovered by the AISI in Rome. Furthermore, the Czech Republic was one of the European countries that agreed to purchase the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
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The article Praga expels 18 Russian diplomats for the explosion of an ammunition depot in 2014 comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/praga-espelle-18-diplomatici-russi-per-lesplosione-di-un-deposito-di-munizioni-nel-2014/ on Sun, 18 Apr 2021 08:00:23 +0000.