PRAGUE (AP) – The two Russian military agents believed to be behind a massive explosion of Czech warehouses in 2014 probably targeted the ammunition, not the Czech Republic itself, the country’s prime minister and prosecutor general said on Monday.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said he did not consider the Russian action “an act of state terrorism”, but said “the presence of GRU agents is absolutely unacceptable”.
“We are a sovereign state and it is unacceptable for foreign agents to conduct such operations here,” Babis said.
On Sunday, Russia ordered 20 Czech diplomats to leave the country in one day in response to the Czech government’s expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats whom it had identified as GRU and SVR spies, Russia’s military and foreign intelligence services. Both sides sent government planes on Monday to take the envoys and their families home.
Pavel Zeman, the Czech Attorney General, said the ammunition in question was largely intended to send an arms dealer from Bulgaria and was intentionally detonated after delivery. The 2014 explosion of the warehouse in the town of Vrbetice killed two people.
“The explosion was not to take place in the Czech Republic,” Zeman said.
Zeman said the two Russian suspects were using false identities on passports in Tajikistan and Moldova when they booked a visit to the warehouse. They stayed in Prague and the eastern city of Ostrava, about a two-hour drive from the warehouse, which is in the east of the Czech Republic.
The suspects also used Russian passports to travel to the Czech Republic.
Their names and photos matched two Russians whom British authorities accused in absentia in 2018 of trying to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with Soviet nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury.
“The two were identified as attackers in Salisbury in 2018,” Zeman said.
Zeman said that because the investigation has not been completed, the authorities cannot reveal more details about the case and have rejected Babis’ request to publish them. Babis said his government plans to seek compensation for Russians from the Russians.
Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, who is also the acting foreign minister, said on Monday that the Russian expulsion of Czech diplomats had effectively paralyzed the Czech embassy in Moscow.
“We should have expected this to happen, but the Czech Republic did nothing wrong,” Hamacek said. “We are the victims of Russian actions.”
Babis said the Czechs would “certainly” want to respond to what is seen as a disproportionate Russian move.
The Czech government has also decided not to allow Russia’s state-controlled Rosatom nuclear corporation to participate in a tender for the planned construction of a nuclear reactor at the Dukovany nuclear power plant.
Czech intelligence services have repeatedly warned against allowing Russian and Chinese companies to bid for the billions of dollars, saying they pose a security risk due to ties with their respective governments.