PRAGUE (PA) – The Czech Republic announced on Saturday that it will expel 18 Russian diplomats it has identified as spies in a case involving a huge 2014 explosion of the ammunition depot.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the measure was based on “unequivocal evidence” provided by Czech intelligence and security services indicating the involvement of Russian military agents in the massive blast in an eastern city that killed “two innocent fathers”.
“The Czech Republic is a sovereign state and must respond appropriately to these unprecedented findings,” Babis said.
Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, who is also the country’s foreign minister, said the 18 staff members of the Russian embassy were clearly identified as spies in the Russian intelligence services known as GRU and SVR and were ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.
The explosion, which took place on October 16, 2014, in a warehouse in the town of Vrbetice, where 50 metric tons of ammunition were stored, claimed two victims. Another explosion of 13 tons of ammunition took place in the warehouse on December 3 of the same year.
Hundreds had to be evacuated from nearby villages after those explosions.
“The United States is an ally, the Czech Republic,” said Jennifer Bachus, who is in charge of business at the US embassy in Prague. “We appreciate their significant action in imposing costs on Russia for its dangerous actions on Czech soil.”
The Czech announcement came two days after the United States said it was expelling 10 Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions on dozens of individuals and companies, blaming the Kremlin for interfering in last year’s presidential election and hacking federal agencies.
Babis said President Milos Zeman, who is known for his pro-Russian views, was briefed on the development and “expressed his full support for us.”
He said the investigation into the case had not yet been completed, but thanked the country’s security forces for “their professional service”.
The announcement sent a shock wave across the country, with politicians from government parties and the opposition uniting in condemning the Russian movement.
“It is an act of state terrorism,” said Petr Fiala, leader of the opposition Civic Democratic Party.
Jiri Sedivy, a former chief of staff of the Czech army, said the Czechs must respond “resolutely” 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 move.
“Prague is aware of what will follow such tricks,” Zakharova told the RIA Novosti news agency.
Hamacek said the case would significantly affect Czech-Russian relations. He said NATO allies and the European Union had been informed of the findings and “asked for their support”.
“We are in a situation similar to that of Great Britain, in the case of the Salisbury poisoning attempt in 2018,” Hamacek said, without elaborating.
Britain has 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 Czech police’s organized crime unit published photos on Saturday with two foreign nationals who visited the country, including the Zlin region in Vrbetice, between October 11 and 16, 2014 and asked the public for any information about them.
The two used Russian passports and were identified as Alexander Petrov, 41, and Ruslan Boshirov, 43. Petrov and Boshirov were indicted in absentia by Britain in 2018 for attempting to kill former Russian spy 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, Prague, and another northeastern Czech region.