Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) stated yesterday that Russia was behind the fatal attack on the Vrbetice ammunition depot in 2014, responding to claims by Radim Fiala, head of the SPD parliamentary group, casting doubt on Russian involvement, which he said had not been proven.
On Sunday, Fiala claimed on Czech Television’s ‘Questions from Vaclav Moravec’ that it had not been proven that Russia was behind the attack. He reiterated his claims yesterday before a meeting of the coalition council.
Fiala refused to say who was behind the attack, as he said he did not have enough information, but argued that it was up to the police, the civilian counterintelligence service (BIS) and the courts to convince him and the Czech public how the attack happened.
However, Babis noted that the prosecutor general, the police president and the intelligence services had all agreed that Russian operatives were behind the attack, and the Czech Republic had then expelled Russian diplomats in response in 2021, under an ANO-led government. He added that the matter was not discussed at yesterday’s cabinet meeting.
“I don’t know why we would deal with it,” he said. “We were there, we responded as a government at the time and I’m not going to have these debates. Somebody has an opinion but it’s gone and I don’t need to comment on it in any way.”
Earlier yesterday, other ANO ministers also dismissed Fiala’s claims. Education Minister Robert Plaga said information at the time clearly showed that Fiala’s version of events was not true, and that agents of the Russian military intelligence service GRU were behind the attack.
Two Czechs died in a warehouse explosion at the ammunition compound in Vrbetice in the Zlin region in 2014. Seven years later, the government led by Babis said that Czech security forces had good reason to suspect the involvement of Russia’s GRU.
Czech criminal investigators shelved the Vrbetice explosions case because Russia had refused to cooperate with Czech police. The Czech police confirmed that GRU members had been behind the explosions to prevent the delivery of ammunition to areas where Russia was conducting military operations.
