PRAGUE, April 21. /TASS/. The lower chamber of the Czech parliament has adopted a document calling upon the country’s government to demand compensation for the 2014 ammo depot blast from Russia, the online version of the Mlada fronta Dnes newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Also, lawmakers called upon the Cabinet to reduce the number of Russian diplomats in the Czech Republic and supported the government’s decision to expel 18 staff members of the Russian embassy, who left Prague on Monday. The parliament also thanked Czech special services and law enforcement for their work to investigate the blasts.
The lower chamber of the Czech parliament also urged ministers to counter acts harming the sovereignty of Czech republic. In line with the document, Russian companies must not be allowed to take part in strategically important infrastructure projects on the Czech territory, such as construction of nuclear power plants.
Earlier, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the finance ministry was preparing a compensation lawsuit against those behind the Vrbetice ammo depot blasts. "Huge damage was done. The Finance Ministry is preparing a lawsuit with the demand to compensate it," he said.
NATO Council meeting
Meanwhile, the Czech Republic has initiated another session of the North Atlantic Council to review the 2014 blasts and Russia’s alleged role in it, the Czech Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Jan Hamacek, in his capacity as Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs <…> informed our allies in the EU and NATO about the nature of the case," the statement says. "The Czech Republic appreciates all the expressions of solidarity it has received from its partners and allies. Negotiations for the further possible coordinated approach are ongoing."
According to the ministry, the Czech Republic requested its allies to convene another North Atlantic Council session later this week, to discuss further steps, and will send senior diplomats to the event.
The Czech Radio, in turn, reported citing an anonymous source that the session would probably take place on April 22.
Petrov, Boshirov in Czech Republic
Russian citizens Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, whom the Czech Republic suspects of involvement in the Vrbetice blast, were registered at a hotel in the northeastern Czech city of Ostrava on October 13-16, 2014, the Czech Television reported on Tuesday.
According to the television, they arrived to Ostrava from the capital Prague and later departed to the ammunition depots in Vrbetice. They received access to those facilities, because they had documents identifying them as businessmen in the weapons production industry.
The two men had Moldovan and Tajik passports, issued to Nicolaj Popa and Ruslan Tabarov, respectively.
Vrbetice incident
On Monday, Czech authorities disclosed that damages caused by the explosions exceed $47 million, which includes the property destroyed in the warehouses, as well as operations on removal of unexploded ordnance near Vrbetice between late 2014 and fall 2020. Besides, the culprits must pay compensation to the families of two people killed in the explosions.
On April 17, Prague expelled 18 Russian embassy employees, whom Czech authorities called Russian intelligence officers. On the same day, Czechia issued an arrest warrant for Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, whom the UK suspects of attempted poisoning of Sergey Skripal. Prague believes that these two people may be involved in the Vrbetice incident.
Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its decisive protest to Prague over the step, taken under "baseless and contrived pretext," and expelled 20 Czech diplomats from the embassy in Moscow.
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Prague’s actions "cartoonish" and stated that the Czech claims were made in an attempt to muffle the reports about the thwarted coup attempt in Minsk in the Western media. She later underscored that Czech claims that the information about the incident will not be handed over to Russia only emphasizes the fake nature of the incident.