DISINFO: Czech investigation into Russian connection to 2014 explosions is insane
SUMMARY
The investigation by the Czech government into the involvement of Russian secret agents in the 2014 ammunition warehouses explosions in Vrbětice is without basis and a sign of insanity. The allegations are scandalous and make a constructive dialogue based on rationality and analysis impossible. The Czech Republic is following in the footsteps of its “big brother” from across the ocean.
RESPONSE
The article describes the investigation by the Czech government into the explosions as baseless yet does not provide a single argument to support this claim. Furthermore, it employs the recurrent disinformation narrative that the U.S. is in control of the policies of other countries, in this case the Czech Republic, to imply that the investigation is part of a supposed wider anti-Russian campaign. Resorting to ad hominem attacks by referring to Czech authorities as “insane” represents an insult that aims to delegitimise the investigation and Czechia in general.
According to Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Czech intelligence services and police had collected “clear evidence” that connected two Russian secret service agents to the explosions and that Czech authorities were acting on the “reasonable suspicion” that GRU was indeed involved in the explosions. The fictitious names of the two men, Ruslan Boširov (real name Anatoliy Chepiga) and Alexandr Petrov (real name Alexander Mishkin), coincided exactly with the names of two people wanted in the UK in connection to the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The two travelled from Moscow to Prague a few days before the explosion using the same GRU-issued passports they would later use to travel to the UK in 2018. Prior to arriving in Czechia, they had booked a business appointment at the ammunition warehouse in Vrbětice using untraceable email addresses and a different set of GRU-issued passports. Once there, the two were issued a permit authorizing them to enter Vrbětice between 13 and 17 October 2014.
Notably, during that same period warehouse workers in Vrbětice were loading weapons purchased by a Bulgarian arms dealer who was supplying arms to Ukraine’s armed forces, which at the time were engaged with separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine supported by Russia. Those same weapons were destroyed in the explosions.
The findings of Czech authorities have been verified by an independent investigation conducted by Bellingcat, The Insider, Der Spiegel, and Respekt.cz.
Pro-Kremlin media have already engaged in building other disinformation narratives related to this case, such as the claim that the Czech Republic blocked information about Belarus coup by raising issue of ammo depot explosion or that Czech allegations against Russia aim to overshadow the failed assassination attempt against Lukashenka. Read similar disinformation cases in the databases claiming that the Skripal and Navalny cases are both fake, that British authorities are exploiting the Skripal case for anti-Russian propaganda and that one of Merkel’s statement regarding Navalny’s poisoning was aimed at discouraging Putin from interfering in Belarus.