An investigation has shown that the same Russian intelligence group responsible for the 2018 Salisbury poisonings was also responsible for two devastating explosions at weapons depots in the Czech Republic.
Two workmen were murdered and substantial damage was inflicted by explosives near the eastern Czech hamlet of Vrbetice in 2014, four years before former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was the target of an assassination attempt in the English town.
In 2021, the Czech government expelled 18 Russian diplomats after announcing they had proof of Russian participation in the blasts.
How the Investigation Began
British and Russian law enforcement agencies were working together on an inquiry into the Russian secret service, but today the country’s police said that they had halted the probe due to Moscow’s refusal to cooperate.
According to the Czech National Central Office Against Organised Crime (NCOZ), ‘the police authority considers it proven that the explosions […] were carried out by members of the Russian military intelligence, the Main Administration of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (aka the GRU)’.
“The objective of the unit was to ‘avoid the shipment of weaponry and ammo to the locations where the Russian army was operating,'” said NCOZ.
At the time, rumors circulated that the ammunition was destined for either Syria to support opposition forces against Bashar al-Assad’s administration, an ally of Russia, or Ukraine, where it would be used in its conflict with pro-Kremlin rebels in the east.
The western world was incensed when Russia seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in early 2014, and the bombs in the NATO-member Czech Republic happened only months later.
The blasts caused the deaths of two individuals, forced over a thousand to flee their houses, and necessitated six years of police work to remove the munitions from the region.
For so long, who would’ve thought that many Russian groups were carrying out a secret war for their Kremlin?
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Spy-Doings Uncovered Across Europe
The Czech media and security agencies have linked Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga to the 2018 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England.
Ruslan Boshirov [Chepiga] and Alexander Petrov [Miskin] were the aliases that the two employed in the assault on the Skripals in the United Kingdom. The legendary GRU Unit 29155 was the membership of the Russian operatives.
Although Chepiga and Mishkin were not named in the article, they were named as suspects and reported on by the independent Russian news site The Insider. Police have chosen to postpone the inquiry due to an inability to get the required information from the Russian Army and Russian secret services, according to a police statement.
The report states that Elena Šapošnikov is associated with the infamous GRU Unit 29155 and that she and her husband conspired to get access to the warehouses in Vrbětice for Mishkin and Chepiga.
Unit 29155 is assigned the subtle mission of carrying out Putin’s and Russia’s bidding overseas, and the Šapošnikov family is reportedly the first ‘illegals’ directly related to this operation, according to the journal.
Elena seemed to be the only one involved with the clandestine squad, even if both Šapošnikov wives were spies for Russia.
As far as Czech investigators can tell, she probably gave orders and monitored her husband’s and maybe her son’s actions that benefited Russia.
While the Czech authorities wait for Greece to decide if they may extradite Elena to face criminal charges in the Czech Republic, Nikolay died of a heart attack in February 2024, according to the Insider.
Following the publication of bomb data by Czech intelligence in 2021, a large number of diplomats and other diplomatic employees were expelled from both countries.
The Russian capital subsequently characterized the Czech Republic as “an unfriendly state” that had engaged in “unfriendly actions” against Russia.
According to reports in the media, the weapons belonged to a Bulgarian dealer and were expected to be destroyed outside the depot. They were allegedly headed for Ukraine.
The Czech Republic, home to 10.9 million people and a member of both the European Union and NATO, has been a major source of military and humanitarian help for Kyiv ever since Russia invaded.
