DISINFO: Bulgaria joined the accusations against Russia because the Czech Republic had no evidence
SUMMARY
The Czech Republic has no evidence of the alleged involvement of Russia in the explosions in the Vrbetice weapons storage depot in 2014, but the EU and the West are not interested in the truth and maintain the narrative of condemning Moscow. The ongoing investigation has little investigation and a lot of pulp fiction. Almost all the countries of the EU block rely on this lie to attack Russia. This rather seems an offensive in which Western secret services seem to weigh heavily, in their sort of war against Russia. But since the setup of the Czech Republic threatened to crumble, Bulgaria came to help by accusing Russia of explosions that took place in that country for 10 years, in 4 storage depots owned by businessman Emilian Gebrev. In the best ‘highly likely’ fashion inaugurated by former British prime minister Theresa May, Bulgaria’s prosecutors affirm that six Russian nationals ‘may’ have been involved in those explosions, and accuse three of them of an attempt on Gebrev’s life. We have this context of a crisis in Europe and the only thing that Western political authorities can come with is blaming Russia for everything. The Bulgarian authorities should be ashamed of rushing to the archives to pick accidents to blame Russia.
RESPONSE
Contrary to the claim in this article, there is conclusive evidence of Russia’s involvement in the explosion in an ammunition storage depot in the Czech location of Vrbetice in 2014, which killed two people. The investigation by the Czech authorities established beyond doubt that the GRU [Russia’s military intelligence] agents Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, the same individuals considered responsible for the attempted murder of Sergey Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, were behind the Vrbetice explosion. According to investigators, an email supposedly from the National Guard of Tajikistan had requested permission for two individuals, ”Ruslan Tabarov” from Tajikistan and “Nicolaj Popa” from Moldova, to visit the storage site and included the scanned image of two false passports with the pictures of both men. The images of “Tabarov” and “Popa” matched those of Chepiga and Mishkin. Prague's findings were independently corroborated by a joint investigation conducted by Bellingcat, The Insider (Russia), Der Spiegel (Germany), and Respekt.cz (Czechia).
Similarly, Bulgarian authorities have established that GRU operatives were in the area of other five explosions in weapons storage sites between 2011 and 2020, as well as in Sofia when a fire in the forensic institute destroyed all evidence gathered by investigators in the case of the two first explosions. As Bellingcat’s Christo Grozev reports, in all cases investigators have established that there was "remote controlled detonation of explosives" and that the ammunition was intended for export either to Ukraine or Georgia. The weapons destroyed in the explosions both in Czechia and in Bulgaria belonged to arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, who was targeted for murder in 2015 along with his son and a business associate, for which three Russian individuals were charged by Bulgarian prosecutors. Bellingcat identified them, as well as other five Russians who were also present in Bulgaria when this incident took place, as members of the GRU Unit 29155, also responsible for the attempt on the life of former Russian spy Sergey Skripal.
This message is part of a disinformation campaign about the events surrounding the Vrbetice explosion in 2014 and the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Czechia in 2021 after the involvement of Russian state actors was established by the Czech authorities. This campaign follows a similar pattern to the others launched after similar incidents, such as the downing of the MH17 flight or the poisonings of Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny, including official denials despite compelling evidence, the spreading of multiple and often contradictory versions and the promotion of speculation about dark motives behind the accusations. Through it, these disinformation narratives aim to deflect any Russian responsibility in the incident and portray Russia as innocent of any misdeed.
See other examples in our database, such as claims that an anti-Russian campaign is the real reason behind the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Czechia, that this expulsion is a smokescreen designed by the US, that allegations against Russia are a pretext to target Rosatom, an attempt to influence the upcoming German elections or preparation for an informational Cold War, or that Czechia is ruled by American and British intelligence agencies.