DISINFO: The story about GRU in Vrbětice is likely made-up
SUMMARY
The way the announcement of the alleged role of GRU in the 2014 Vrbětice explosion unfolded is very interesting. It is likely it is all just a made-up story.
RESPONSE
This is part of a disinformation campaign about the events surrounding the Vrbětice 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.
Czech governmental officials announced on 17 April 2021, that the Czech intelligence services have evidence that the Russian intelligence service GRU was involved in the 2014 Vrbětice explosion.
The fact that the two main suspects, Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga, demonstrably broke into the warehouse was confirmed by both the director of the National Center against Organized Crime Jiří Mazánek and the chairman of the standing committee for control of the Security Information Service Pavel Bělobrádek.
Although the findings of the Czech intelligence services were not made public, an independent group of journalists at Bellingcat conducted their own open-source investigation into the case and published their results. They were also able to link the explosion to GRU’s Unit 29155, the same Unit which was involved in the 2018 Skripals poisoning. They analysed their transport information and later even motives.
This campaign follows a similar pattern to others launched after notorious incidents, such as the downing of the MH17 flight or the poisonings of Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny, including official denials despite compelling evidence, spreading of multiple and often contradictory versions and speculation about sinister motives or conspiracies behind the accusations. More cases can be found here.