Czech expels 18 Russians
The Czech Republic has announced it is expelling 18 Russian diplomats it has identified as spies in a case related to a huge ammunition depot explosion in 2014. Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the move is based on "unequivocal evidence" provided by the Czech intelligence and security services points to the involvement of Russian military agents in the massive explosion in an eastern town that killed "two innocent fathers."
"The Czech Republic is a sovereign state and must adequately react to those unprecedented findings," Babis said. Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, also serving as the country's foreign minister, said the 18 Russian embassy staffers were clearly identified as spies from the Russian intelligence services known as GRU and SVR and were ordered to leave the country in 48 hours.
The explosion, which took place on October 16, 2014 in a depot in the town of Vrbetice
where 50 metric tons of ammunition was stored, claimed two victims. Another explosion of 13 tons of ammunition occurred in the depot on Dec. 3 of that same year. Hundreds had to be evacuated from nearby villages after those explosions.
"It's an act of state terrorism," said Petr Fiala, the head of the opposition Civic Democratic Party.
Jiri Sedivy, former chief the Czech military's general staff, said the Czechs have to response "resolutely" to the Russian action. “It was an
obvious military attack on our sovereign territory," Sedivy told the Czech public television. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said her country would answer the Czech move. "Prague is well aware of what will follow such tricks," Zakharova was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency.
Further, the Czech Police’s organised crime unit published photos of two foreign citizens who visited the country, including the Zlin region where Vrbetice is located, between October 11 and 16 in 2014 and asked the public for any information about them. The two were using Russian passports and were identified as Alexander Petrov, 41, and Ruslan Boshirov, 43. Petrov and Boshirov were charged in absentia by Britain in 2018 for trying to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with the Soviet nerve agent Novichok.