PRAGUE (AP) – The Czech Republic announced on Saturday that it was expelling 18 Russian diplomats it has identified as spies in a case involving a huge explosion of the ammunition depot in 2014.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the measure is based on “unequivocal evidence” provided by the Czech intelligence and security services that points to the involvement of Russian military agents in the massive explosion of an eastern city that is kill “two innocent parents.”
“The Czech Republic is a sovereign state and must react appropriately to those unprecedented findings,” Babis said.
Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, who also serves as the country’s foreign minister, said the 18 Russian embassy officials were clearly identified as spies for known Russian intelligence services. as GRU and SVR and were ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.
The blast, which took place on October 16, 2014 at a depot in the town of Vrbetice, where 50 metric tons of ammunition were stored, caused two casualties. Another explosion of 13 tons of ammunition occurred at the depot on December 3 of the same year.
After these explosions, hundreds of nearby villages had to be evacuated.
“The United States is showing off its firm ally, the Czech Republic,” said Jennifer Bachus, business manager of the U.S. embassy in Prague. “We are grateful for his important action to impose costs on Russia for its dangerous actions on Czech soil.”
The Czech announcement came two days after the United States said it was expelling ten Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions on dozens of people and businesses, blaming the Kremlin for interference in last year’s presidential election and piracy. of federal agencies.
Babis said President Milos Zeman, who is known for his pro-Russian views, has been briefed on the development and has “expressed absolute support for us.”
He said the investigation into the case has not yet been completed, but thanked the country’s security forces for their “professional work”.
The announcement sparked a nationwide shock wave, with politicians from government parties and the opposition united to condemn the Russian measure.
“It is an act of state terrorism,” said Petr Fiala, the leader of the opposition Democratic civic party.
Jiri Sedivy, former chief of staff of the Czech army, said the Czechs must respond “decisively” to Russian action.
“It was an obvious military attack on our sovereign territory,” Sedivy told Czech public television.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said her country would respond to the Czech measure.
“Prague is well aware of what these tricks will follow,” he was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
Hamacek said the case will significantly harm Czech-Russian relations. He said the country’s allies in NATO and the European Union have been briefed on the findings and “we have asked for their support.”
“We are in a situation similar to that of Britain in the case of attempted poisoning in Salisbury in 2018,” Hamacek said, without detailing it.
Britain expelled dozens of Russian diplomats after Russian agents used a Soviet-era nerve agent to poison a former Russian spy and his daughter who lived in the English city of Salisbury.
At the same time, the organized crime unit of the Czech police published on Saturday photographs of two foreign nationals who visited the country, including the Zlin region where Vrbetice is located, between 11 and 16 October 2014 and they asked the public for any information about them.
The two used Russian passports and identified themselves as Alexander Petrov, 41, and Ruslan Boshirov, 43. Britain was charged in absentia by Petrov and Boshirov in 2018 for attempting to kill former Russian spy Soviet Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with the Soviet nervous agent Novichok.
Czech police said the two men also used passports issued by Moldova for Nicolai Popa and a passport issued by Tajikistan for Ruslan Tabarov.
They said the two also visited the capital of Prague and another Czech region in the northeast.