{"id":19379,"date":"2021-04-19T07:44:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T07:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kumasionlinegh.com\/?p=19379"},"modified":"2021-04-19T07:44:23","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T07:44:23","slug":"russia-expels-czech-diplomats-over-explosion-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kumasionlinetv.com\/?p=19379","title":{"rendered":"Russia expels Czech diplomats over explosion row"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russia has announced that 20 diplomats from the Czech Republic will be expelled from the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian diplomats on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czech local intelligence agents say the diplomats are Russian intelligence operatives. They are suspected of involvement in an explosion at an arms\u2019 depot in 2014 which killed two people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Union foreign ministers are set to discuss the accusation during a meeting on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moscow has given the Czech diplomats a day to leave while the Czech Republic has given the Russians 72 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia\u2019s foreign ministry called the Czech decision \u201cunprecedented\u201d and a \u201chostile act\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn their desire to please the United States against the background of recent US sanctions against Russia, Czech authorities in this respect even outdid their masters from across the pond,\u201d said a foreign ministry statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the claims?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Czech authorities say the diplomats are believed to be intelligence operatives, accusations the Russians have classed as unfounded and absurd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explosion tore apart an ammunitions\u2019 storage depot in a forest at Vrb\u011btice in the Czech Republic on 16 October 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Windows in nearby buildings were blown out and local schools were evacuated as emergency vehicles rushed to the scene. The remains of two men \u2013 aged 56 and 69 \u2013 who worked at the site were found more than a month later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blast was assumed to have been an accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But painstaking detective work by Czech authorities has pointed the finger at Moscow \u2013 and Unit 29155 of Russia\u2019s GRU intelligence agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czech Police have identified two suspects in connection with the blast \u2013 Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepigov \u2013 who are also accused of involvement in the Salisbury poisonings in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sergei Skripal, a former double Russian agent, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in the English town, while a local woman, Dawn Sturgess, was killed months later by Novichok from a discarded perfume bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigative site Bellingcat identified the Salisbury suspects Ruslan Boshirov as Anatoly Chepiga, and Alexander Petrov as Alexander Mishkin, both GRU officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czech police matched images of the blast suspects to the two accused by Britain of the Salisbury poisoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clue came from passport photos sent in an email to Imex Group, the company which operated the depot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The email claimed to come from the National Guard of Tajikistan. It asked for two men to be given access to the site for an inspection visit. Scans of their passports were attached. The men were said to be Ruslan Tabarov from Tajikistan and Nicolaj Popa, a Moldovan citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pictures on the passports match those of the two men accused by Britain of the Salisbury poisoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men booked into accommodation in Ostrava, near the ammunition depot on 13 October. They were booked to stay until 17 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explosion took place on the 16th and that day the pair headed to Austria to fly from Vienna airport to Moscow. The authorities do not appear to know exactly how the depot was blown up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Czech Republic will inform Nato and EU allies about its suspicions, and will discuss the matter at an EU foreign ministers\u2019 meeting on Monday, its acting Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US state department said it stood with the Czech Republic in its \u201cfirm response against Russia\u2019s subversive actions on Czech soil\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week the US expelled 10 Russian diplomats and imposed sanctions in response to the \u201cSolarWinds\u201d hack last year, bullying Ukraine and interference in the 2020 US election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source:<\/strong>BBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia has announced that 20 diplomats from the Czech Republic will be expelled from the country. The Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian diplomats on Saturday. Czech local intelligence agents say the diplomats are Russian intelligence operatives. They are suspected of involvement in an explosion at an arms\u2019 depot in 2014 which killed two people. European […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\nRussia expels Czech diplomats over explosion row - Kumasi Online TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kumasionlinetv.com\/?p=19379\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia expels Czech diplomats over explosion row - Kumasi Online TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Russia has announced that 20 diplomats from the Czech Republic will be expelled from the country. 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