Secret Document on Russia's Alleged Role in Vrbetice Arms Depot Blasts Destroyed at Czech President's Office

Police are currently checking the details of the incident.

Czech police are investigating the circumstances under which a secret document of Czech intelligence services on the explosions at arms depots in the village of Vrbetice in 2014 was destroyed. New information about those explosions led in April 2021 to a diplomatic scandal and a sharp deterioration in relations between the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation. This is reported by Radio Prague

The message, addressed exclusively to Czech President Miloš Zeman, contained data on the involvement of agents of Russian military intelligence GRU in the explosions, which killed two people and caused enormous financial damage.

Police learned of the destruction of the BIS document (Security and Information Service, counterintelligence) when checking whether Prague Castle was complying with the procedures for handling such classified information.

Experts intended to determine whether fingerprints or DNA of outsiders who had the right to view the document were present on it.

Messages from the Security and Information Service were addressed exclusively to President Miloš Zeman, while close aides in the head of state's office, such as Chancellor Vratislav Mynář and adviser Martin Nedlý, never received certificates confirming they had passed vetting to work with classified documents.

According to available information, the secret message, which mentions the names of two GRU agents, Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, who are also linked to the case of the attempted poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain with the Novichok nerve agent, was destroyed accidentally along with several other documents.

Presidential Chancellor Vratislav Mynář did not officially deny the information about the destruction of the classified paper and did not specify the reasons for what happened, but at the same time categorically rejected the possibility that the material in question could have been read by persons not entitled to do so.

Jan Novák, head of the security committee of the President's Office, emphasized that document destruction is handled by staff with the appropriate level of clearance, who draw up all the necessary protocols in such cases.

Recall that explosions at the military facility in Vrbetice, Czech Republic, took place on 16 October and 3 December 2014, resulting in the destruction of depots No. 16 and No. 12. Two people died.

As a result, Prague expelled 18 Russian diplomats, and Russia in response declared 20 Czech embassy staff in Moscow persona non grata. Afterwards, the Czech Republic announced it was expelling about 70 more staff of the Russian embassy. Several EU countries joined the expulsion of Russian diplomats in solidarity with the Czech Republic.