DISINFO: Czechs could not make an objective investigation of the Vrbetice incident
SUMMARY
Prague could not make an objective investigation of the Vrbetice incident, so it made the decision to shift blame to an “external enemy” - Russia.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the explosion in Vrbetice in 2014.
Even though Russia does not recognise its responsibility for the Vrbetice incident, the investigation by Czech authorities established beyond doubt that GRU agents Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, the same individuals considered responsible for the attempted murder of Sergey Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, were behind an explosion in an ammunition storage depot in the Czech location of Vrbetice in 2014, which killed two people.
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). Their investigation concluded that six officers of the GRU, led by the head of the military unit 29155, general Andrey Averyanov, were involved in this operation. Two of them worked undercover as diplomatic couriers.
For EU reaction in connection with the Vrbetice case see here.
See similar cases of disinformation linked to the explosion in Vrbetice here, here and here.