Babiš expelled two Russian diplomats including „the man with ricin“. We describe what preceded the vigorous action
The Czech Government took an unexpected and very firm step. It expelled two Russian diplomats, who were given 48 hours to leave. According to the information of the Czech authorities both men work for Russian secret service. We describe details of the action in which both diplomats and the secret service participated.
Babiš announced that he took the step due to the so-called ricin case, when the Czech secret services received a message that a Russian diplomat with ricin arrived in the Czech Republic. He was supposed to pose a threat to three Prague politicians. “The information and evidence I got from the Security Information Service (Bezpečnostní informační služba, BIS) shows that the case arose as a result of internal conflict between the employees of the embassy of the Russian Federation in Prague,” said the Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
„We are a sovereign state and such actions are not acceptable in our territory. Two employees were declared as persona non grata,“ emphasized Babiš and thanked the Security Information Service for their work.
„We made the effort to resolve this unpleasant situation through diplomacy. The attitude of the Russian Federation does not give us another option, even with the expectation of a reciprocal action. We take this step very rarely and after a careful consideration,“ added the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček.
Neither Babiš, nor Petříček were willing to comment on further details of the case, however Deník N managed to verify from sources close to the Russian embassy and the Office of the Government that the expulsion is related
