DISINFO: Czech accusations about GRU an attempt to divert attention from coup attempts in Belarus
SUMMARY
Facts are revealed that leave no possibility for the West to deny its role in preparing for the coup: Two citizens of Belarus, one of whom holds American citizenship, received advice and support from Western capitals. The posted video leaves no doubts about their goals.
The Czech Republic’s accusations of GRU involvement in the explosion of a Czech ammunition depot in 2014 is an attempt to divert attention from a coup attempt in Belarus.
RESPONSE
An unsubstantiated claim about the explosion of an ammunition depot in the Czech Republic in 2014, attempting to ridicule the revelations about the GRU's involvement as a Western attempt to cover a failed attempt on Lukashenka's life. The claim was neither critically challenged nor counterbalanced in the article.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Hamáček announced on 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." According to Mr Babiš, the first discussions around the GRU’s involvement took place on the 7th of April 2021.
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). Bellingcat announced already in 2020 that members of Unit 29155 were present in Czechia during the period when a large arms depot exploded in northern Moravia. In this regard, claims that the current tensions in Czechia-Russia relations have something to do with the US or an alleged assassination plot against Lukashenka in April 2021 (announced by the FSB on the 17th of April 2021) are groundless.
One of the two suspects in the assassination plot against Lukashenka detained by the FSB is a lawyer who has dual American-Belarusian citizenship. This fact does not mean, however, that the US officials were involved in the alleged plot, which is tied to an online Zoom discussion from last summer. There are suspicions that the arrests of two men is a provocation.
See similar cases that Czech allegations against Russia aim to overshadow failed attempt on Lukashenka's life, that allegations of Russian role in Vrbetice explosion part of Russophobic smear campaign, and that there is no evidence of Moscow's involvement in the 2014 Vrbetice explosion.