Two Russian spies accused of carrying out the Salisbury noichock nerve attack are at the centre of a serious crime investigation in the Czech Republic.
Czech police said on Saturday they were searching for two men carrying various passports, including Russian passports in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
The names matched those used by the two suspects in the attempted poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury in 2018. Russia has denied involvement in the attack.
Czech police have issued an alert for information about two suspected Russian spies who used passports in the name of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – the same passports used during the 2018 Salisbury novichok attacks – in a warehouse bombing in October 2014
Czech police issued the alert this evening for the two suspected Russian agents who have been linked to a bombing in October 2014 which killed two people
The pair claimed they had visited Salisbury to see the spire of the historic cathedral
During their visit to Salisbury, former KGB spy Sergei Skripal, right, and his daughter Yulia, left, received life-threatening doses of a chemical agent novichok
Members of the National Centre against Organised Crime of the Criminal Police and Investigation Service (NCOZ) published mugshots of the two suspects who are accused of serious crimes in the country between October 11, 2014 and October 16, 2014.
Col. Mgr. Jaroslav Ibehej of the NCOZ issued the notice for the two men who were first using Russian passports with the names Alexander Petrov, born on July 13, 1979 and Ruslan Boshirov, born April 12, 1978.
The pair then switched to one Moldovan passport in the name of Nicolai Popa, born July 18, 1979 and a Tajikistan passport in the name of Ruslan Tabarov, born October 23, 1975.
According to Czech police they were first in Prague, and later in the Morovian-Silesian region and then finally in the Zlin region.
The investigation relates to a decision by the Czech government to expel 18 Russian diplomats identified by local intelligence as secret agents of the Russian SVR and GRU services that are suspected of involvement in a 2014 explosion.
Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek said: ‘Eighteen employees of the Russian embassy must leave our republic within 48 hours.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said Czech authorities had ‘clear evidence’ linking GRU officers to an explosion in an ammunition warehouse in 2014 which left two people dead.
‘We have good reason to suspect the involvement of GRU officers from unit 29155 in the explosion at the ammunition warehouse in Vrbetice’ in the east of the country, Babis said.
He added he had received the information on Friday, without explaining why it had taken so long.
Czech Prime Minister Adreij Babis, right, and his foreign minister Jan Mamacek, left, today announced a decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats in relation to the 2014 attack. Czech police issued an alert for the two men suspected of being involved in the attack
UK authorities believe the two Russians are responsible for the Salisbury attack. Now Czech authorities believe the same men were involved in the bombing of a warehouse in Vrbetice, in the east of the country. The bombing of an ammunition warehouse left two people dead
‘The explosion led to huge material damage and posed a serious threat to the lives of many local people, but above all it killed two of our fellow citizens, fathers of families,’ Babis said.
Hamacek, who is the interior minister and also an interim foreign minister after his predecessor was sacked earlier this week, said he was sorry the incident would ‘fundamentally damage Czech-Russian relations’.
‘We are in a situation similar to that in Britain following the attempted poisoning in Salisbury in 2018,’ he said, referring to the case of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal who survived a nerve agent poisoning in Britain.
Russia denied involvement but some 300 diplomats were sent home in subsequent tit-for-tat expulsions.
Hamacek said he had summoned Russian ambassador Alexander Zmeyevsky on Saturday evening to tell him about the decision.
On Thursday, the Czech Republic’s neighbour Poland said it had expelled three Russian diplomats for ‘carrying out activities to the detriment’ of Poland.
Warsaw also expressed solidarity with the US, which earlier that day had announced sanctions and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats in retaliation for what Washington said was the Kremlin’s US election interference, a massive cyber attack and other hostile activity.