DISINFO: Allegations of Russian role in Vrbetice explosion part of Russophobic smear campaign
SUMMARY
Allegations of Russian involvement in the 2014 Vrbetice explosion are an attempt to kill two birds with one stone. First, to discredit the Sputnik V vaccine; second, to force Russia out of the tender for the renovation of the Dukovany NPP.
The present accusations against Moscow shares some similarities with previous anti-Russian campaigns, namely the alleged Skripal poisoning and the MH17 crash: neither was properly investigated, but both were used as a pretext to impose sanctions on Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative dismissing any allegations of Moscow's malign activity abroad as "Russophobic."
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek announced on Saturday 17 April 2021 that the Czech intelligence services collected evidence demonstrating Russian involvement in the 2014 Vrbětice explosion. More specifically, it implicates Unit 29155, a division of Russia's GRU agency previously linked to "assassination attempts and other subversive actions across Europe." Prague's findings were independently corroborated in the course of an investigation jointly conducted by Bellingcat, The Insider (Russia), Der Spiegel (Germany), and Respekt.cz (Czech Republic).
The involvement of Russian state actors in the MH17 crash and the Skripal poisoning has been established beyond reasonable doubt. See e.g. here and here for our debunking of these claims.
Pro-Kremlin coverage of the Vrbetice incident resembles Moscow's standard approach to damage control in the face of incriminating evidence: knee-jerk denial of wrongdoing, attribution of the charges to Western Russophobia, and mass production of "alternative explanations." This template has been applied in the coverage of the MH17 crash, the Skripal poisoning, and the Navalny poisoning.