The lower house of the Czech parliament has called on the government to demand compensation from Russia for damage after the explosion in Vrbetica in 2014, according to Mlada fronta Dnes.
“We are a proud country and will defend ourselves,” Gazeta.ru quotes the leader of the Christian Democratic parliamentary faction Jan Bartoshek, one of the authors of the initiative.
The deputies also appealed to the government with a demand to reduce the number of representatives of the Russian embassy in Prague. In addition, they urged not to allow Russian companies to participate in the planned construction of the Dukovany nuclear power plant and other elements of the country’s infrastructure.
The incident in Vrbetica took place in 2014. Prague claims that evidence of the alleged involvement of the Russian special services in the explosion is clear. At the same time, the Czech Republic cannot declassify data about the incident.
On April 17, 2021, the Czech Republic announced that it was expelling 18 Russian diplomats, allegedly due to Moscow’s connection to the incident. In response, Russia declared 20 employees of the Czech embassy in the Russian Federation persona non grata.
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov pointed out that statements about Russia’s involvement in the explosion in Vrbetica are groundless and destructive for bilateral relations.