Czech police hunt suspects of Salisbury poisonings
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April 19, 2021
LONDON: Police in the Czech Republic are hunting two men whose passports match the names of the Russian nationals suspected of the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury.
The UK government said it “stands in full support” with the Czech Republic after authorities published photos of two foreign citizens who visited the country 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.
It came as the Czech Republic said it was expelling 18 Russian diplomats who it had identified as spies in a case related to a huge ammunition depot explosion in the town of Vrbetice in 2014.
Prague Expels 18 Russian Diplomats over Involvement in 2014 Ammunition Depot Explosion Our Bureau 436
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš
The Czech Republic has expelled 18 Russian diplomats after an investigation linked their involvement to a 2014 ammunition depot explosion and will discuss the matter at an upcoming NATO summit on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced that there was a reasonable suspicion of the involvement of Russian secret service GRU officers in the explosions of ammunition depots in Vrbětice. They are accused of working for the Russian special services, Novinky.cz reported Saturday.
“There is well-grounded suspicion about the involvement of officers of the Russian intelligence service GRU, unit 29155, in the explosion of ammunitions depot in the Vrbetice area,” Babis said.
Western intelligence is only aware of around 10 per cent of Russia s aggressive activities in Europe, a former head of MI6 warned today as the Kremlin was implicated in yet more criminality.
Sir John Sawers spoke as the Russian agents accused of orchestrating the deadly Salisbury nerve agent attack were implicated in a deadly explosion in Czechia in 2014.
The UK has backed Prague after it expelled senior diplomatic figures representing Vladimir Putin s regime, prompting a tit-for-tat reply, over the ammunition depot blast, which left two people dead.
Sir John, who ran the Secret Intelligence Service from 2009 to 2014, told BBC Radio 4 s Today programme: It shouldn t be a surprise that Russian intelligence are very active across Europe, and I think the Czechs have pieced this together really rather well.
Salisbury poisoning suspects wanted over deadly explosion as Russia expels 20 Czech diplomats Russia has expelled 20 Czech diplomats in an escalating row after Prague claimed two Russian intelligence officers accused of the Salisbury spy poisonings also blew up an ammunition depot in the Czech Republic.
The Czech officials were given just a day to leave in a harsher than tit-for-tat response to a decision by the Czech government a day earlier to kick 18 Russian diplomats out of their country within 72 hours.
Prague imposed the punishment after accusing Moscow s intelligence services of the attack on the Vrbetice facility in October 2014, which left two workers dead.