DISINFO: The expulsion of Russian diplomats from Czechia is a smokescreen designed by the US
SUMMARY
The expulsion of Russian diplomats from Czechia is a smokescreen designed by the US to distract attention from real events. The Czech version is not backed by evidence. First, it ordered the expulsion and then it looked for a pretext: the explosions in Vrbetice in 2014, which “coincidentally” would have been carried out by the same suspects involved in the Skripal case in the UK. It is a “miracle” that the Czech investigators could solve in less than 48 hours a case that they couldn’t crack for seven years.
RESPONSE
This is part of a disinformation campaign about the events surrounding the Vrbetice explosion in 2014 and the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the Czech Republic in 2021 after the involvement of Russian state actors was established by Czech authorities. This campaign follows a similar pattern to the others launched after similar incidents, such as the downing of the MH17 flight or the poisonings of Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny, including official denials despite compelling evidence, the spreading of multiple and often contradictory versions and the promotion of speculations about dark motives behind the accusations. Through it, these disinformation narratives aim to deflect any Russian responsibility in the incident and portray Russia as innocent of any misdeed.
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 the 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).
See other examples of these disinformation narratives about Russia as a faultless victim of the West, such as allegations about the supposed anti-Russian bias of international institutions -be it the OPCW, the World Anti-Doping Agency or the United Nations- which always falsely accuse Russia; the alleged Russophobia of the EU; the affirmation that it is NATO and not the Kremlin who is involved in the Donbas conflict; denials that Russia had any role in the poisoning of Sergey Skripal or the downing of MH17; or claims that neither the US Intelligence Committee report nor the Mueller report found any evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, that there is no proof that Russia tried to influence the Brexit referendum, that “absurd” accusations against Russia are an attempt to demonise it, that for the West Russia is an enemy that must be surrounded with military bases, and that the West invented Navalny’s poisoning to uphold the myth of aggressive Russia.