Two spies, an explosion, and the new Czech rift with Russia

‘Putin is a murderer,’ read the signs carried by protestors outside the Russian Embassy in Prague on Sunday. On Saturday night, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš stunned the Czech Republic by stating that evidence now links Russian GRU secret agents to a massive explosion which killed two people at an arms depot near the Moravian village of Vrbětice in 2014.

Czech Minister of the Interior and acting Foreign Minister Jan Hamáček gave 18 diplomats known to be linked to Russian foreign intelligence 48 hours to leave the country, and compared the situation to the Salisbury poisoning in 2018. The Salisbury parallel was underlined by the announcement of a manhunt for Alexandr Miškin and Anatolij Čepigov – the two Russian intelligence agents thought responsible for the explosion in 2014, and the GRU Unit 29155 agents also blamed for the Salisbury poisoning.

The agents used false identities to arrive in Prague days before the blast in 2014, staying in the city of Ostrava before leaving the country on the day of the explosion.