The Czech Republic expels 18 Russian diplomats

Meanwhile, Czech police are searching for two men with Russian passports, who were also used by the suspects in the attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in England in 2018.

The two are wanted on suspicion of playing a role in the explosion that killed two people at an ammunition depot, the Organized Crime Police unit said.

Prime Minister Andrzej Babis said that the Czech intelligence and security services had found clear evidence of the involvement of Russian military intelligence agents in the 2014 FRPTs bombings.

Great damage

The facility was used by commercial defense suppliers, hundreds of personnel mines were stored there, and the physical damage was massive.

Babis said on Saturday evening that the Czech Republic would have to respond to the results.

– 18 employees of the Russian Embassy must leave our republic within 48 hours, Says Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamask, who is also the acting foreign minister.

specific

He adds that the Czech intelligence service has clearly identified the 18 as Russian spies.

Babis says he received information on Friday that was alleged to link the KGB to the explosion. He did not explain why the investigation took so long.

In Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Prague was well aware of what happens after “such scams”.

Cleaning for two years

The first explosion occurred on October 16, 2014, in a warehouse in the town of Verbatis with 50 tons of ammunition, 110 kilometers east of Prague. On December 3 of the same year, 13 tons of ammunition went into the air in the same place.

After that, several thousand soldiers spent two years defusing unexploded ordnance to make the area safe.

Babis says President Milos Zeman, known for his pro-Russian stance, “has expressed his absolute support for us,” the AP news agency writes.

Salisbury

Hamacek believes the Czech Republic is in a similar situation to the UK after the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in Salisbury in 2018.

Hamacek had planned a trip to Moscow on Monday, but it has now been canceled. He has received heavy criticism from both Babis and his colleagues in the government and opposition to the planned trip. In Moscow, he was talking about the possibility of getting coronary vaccines from Russia.

The vaccine problem

The Pape minority government is under pressure due to the lame vaccination campaign in the Czech Republic. Just six months before the election, the Seznam Zpravy online newspaper revealed that the government had requested less than half of the vaccines it had had the chance to get through the European Union.

Poland, bordering the Czech Republic, expelled, on Thursday, three Russian diplomats accused of committing acts harmful to the country.

At the same time, Poland provided “full support for the decisions made by the United States regarding its policy towards Russia,” according to the Warsaw Foreign Ministry.