Czechs expel Russians over poisoning hoax

THE Czech Republic has expelled two Russian diplomats after a Russian embassy employee spread false information about a planned poison attack on three Prague politicians, officials said yesterday.

In April, Respekt newspaper cited security sources as saying that a Russian national using a diplomatic passport had arrived in Prague carrying ricin, a toxic poison that can be used as a biological weapon.

Around the same time, three Prague politicians who had each made political gestures that angered Russia were placed under police protection. “One embassy employee sent deliberately made-up information about a planned attack on Czech politicians to BIS,” said Andrej Babiš, the prime minister, referring to the Czech intelligence service.

“We have adopted appropriate and adequate measures and declared two embassy staff persona non grata.”

The case further soured already tricky relations between Prague and the Kremlin, with Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesman saying in April that the Respekt report was “misinformation” and “sick fantasies”.

The Russian embassy in Prague dismissed the expulsion on its Facebook page as “provocation”.

“Based on ungrounded accusations in the media from the beginning, this hostile step shows Prague is not interested in normalising Russian-czech relations.” Ondřej Kolář, one of the three politicians named in the hoax, had spearheaded the April removal of a Cold War-era statue dedicated to Ivan Konev, a Soviet general.

Zdenĕk Hřib, the Prague mayor, another of those targeted, supported renaming the Prague square where the Russian embassy is based after Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition leader murdered in 2015.

And the district run by Pavel Novotný, the third politician mentioned in the hoax, installed a memorial to the so-called Vlasov Army – Red Army defectors who helped to liberate Prague in May 1945.