Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister of the Czech Republic Jan Hamacek is to resign after media reports of alleged plans to come to an agreement with Russia before being publicly accused of involvement in the explosions at an arms depot in Vrbetica. This was stated by the leader of the leading opposition Civic Democratic Party Petr Fiala.
Earlier that day, Seznam Zprávy, citing sources, reported that Hamacek planned to visit Moscow in mid-April and agree that Prague would not report the Vrbetica incident in 2014 in exchange for a possible Russia-US summit in the Czech capital. … In addition, he planned to agree on a free supply of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.
“Jan Hamacek must resign immediately, he cannot run the ministry responsible for the safety of citizens. On the contrary, it directly threatens the safety of citizens, “Fiala wrote in Twitter on Tuesday, May 4th.
According to him, Gamacek is seriously suspected of intending to “sell national security for a million doses of an unapproved vaccine.” The politician called it “incredible” to endanger the security of the Czech Republic in this way.
Fiala’s position was supported by the leader of the Christian Democrats Marian Jurechka. He told reporters that he would insist on convening a closed session of parliament, where the heads of all the republic’s special services will speak, iDNES reports.
Hamacek, in turn, denies all charges. According to him, the article “is based on speculation and lies.”
“These unsubstantiated speculations are detrimental to the interests of the Czech Republic and the interests of a foreign power,” he wrote in his Twitter Tuesday.
On April 17, Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babis announced that the country’s authorities suspect the Russian special services of involvement in the explosion at an ammunition depot in Vrbetica in 2014. On the same day, Prague announced its decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats.
Russia responded by declaring 20 employees of the Czech embassy in Moscow persona non grata. The accusations of the Czech Republic against the Russian Federation were categorically rejected, and the fact that Prague does not publish a report on the explosion, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova called proof of a lie.
On April 25, Czech President Milos Zeman said that the intelligence report did not provide evidence of the involvement of “Russian agents” in the explosion. He also drew attention to the fact that the country’s counterintelligence, even in the closed part of the reports, had not reported anything about some “Russian agents” for six years. He also urged to wait for the results of the investigation of the incident before drawing conclusions.