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The Czech government has downplayed the significance of Russia’s deadly attack on a weapons depot in 2014, but further retaliatory measures, including at EU level, could follow.
“It was not an act of state terrorism. [Russian] agents attacked the goods of a Bulgarian arms dealer, who probably sold them to parties fighting against Russia. The ammunition was to explode along the way [to the depot]. But it is, of course, unacceptable that they carried out this operation here, which they messed up,” Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš said on TV on Monday (19 April).
He spoke following a government meeting in which he shared classified evidence of the attack seven years ago, which killed two Czech citizens.
The pro-Russian Czech president, Miloš Zeman, a political ally of Babiš, has said nothing.
Earlier the same day, speaking at an EU foreign affairs ministers’ video-conference, the Czech Republic’s acting foreign minister, Jan Hamáček, did brief EU colleagues on the attack.
He asked for EU “solidarity” on the case, which was duly expressed in two brief statements – one by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell and a second one by a European Commission spokesman.
But according to diplomatic sources, he did not ask for any concrete measures, such as coordinated expulsions of Russian diplomats by other EU countries.
“They called for solidarity in general not for specific measures”, an EU diplomat told EUobserver.
When asked why the EU reaction has been so muted for now, the diplomat added: “Because common sense is not a common practice [in Europe]”.
Prague did expel 18 Russian diplomats as a response, prompting Russia to expel 20 Czech ones in retaliation.
But the developments were widely seen as disproportionate, given that Russia had over 120 diplomats in the Czech Republic, while the Russian move left just a handful of Czech diplomats in Moscow.
And for some commentators, Babiš and Hamáček’s manoeuvring on Monday was because they were taken aback by Russia’s firm response.
“It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise that they decided to do so [expel the 18 Russians]. And now it seems as if they are afraid of their vigorous approach and procedure,” Petr Kolář, the Czech Republic’s former ambassador to the US, told Czech media on Monday.
“I think that the way we are approaching this now embarrasses not only me and some colleagues, but also allies abroad. I think they expected a much more emphatic continuation of how we started,” he added.
“I must say that this is embarrassing our allies now. The Czech public must also be confused. But the responses I have from foreign diplomats are also embarrassing,” he said.
The Czech side is also expected to brief Nato ambassadors at a meeting of the allies’ North Atlantic Council later this week.
And for one EU diplomat, further reactions both in the Czech republic and in the West could still follow.
“I have a feeling that this is just the beginning,” the diplomat said.
For its part, the foreign policy committee of the Czech Senate asked the Czech government, also on Monday, to decrease the number of Russian diplomats in the country to just one – the Russian ambassador himself.
The Czech trade minister, Karel Havlíček, indicated that Russian state firm Rosatom will be excluded from a tender to build a nuclear power plant in the country.
But for some Nato allies, the incident should be treated at least as gravely as Russia’s attempt to assassinate a former Russian spy in the UK in 2018 – when Europe and the US collectively expelled over 300 Russian envoys.
The 2014 explosion “was a direct attack on a Nato member country”, Tom Tugendhat, a British MP who chairs the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Sky News broadcaster over the weekend.
“If this was not an act of war, then I have trouble understanding what should be considered as one,” he added.
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