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© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Russia expels 20 Czech diplomats; says Prague took hostile step
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Numan
Putin is taking a page from Lil Kim. He is lashing out because his grip on power is diminishing. I do not see Putin ever being voted out but kicked out from a coup!
Alex
@Numan
What was he supposed to do in response, just say "Thank you, may I have another"? This is how the reciprocity principle works, but obviously it's news to some people.
GdTokyo
More hostile than blowing up an arms depot in a foreign country using the same 2 agents who tried to murder a dissident using a chemical weapon?
starpunk
Lesse - war with Georgia and Ukraine, killing dissents who fled to the UK, messing around in Syria, and cyberwar, cyberwar, cyberwar. And now this.
He's peeved now that his lapdog Diaper Don is out of power and the US isn't orbiting him. The USA fell out off his hands now and he's SAD SAD SAD. And now this 'hostile step' because his hand was in the Czech cookie jar. Go sulk in a corner and drown your sorrows with vodka, Vladimir. WAH!
nandakandamanda
Russia does not like being found out and exposed. It's the elaborate denials, explanations and double-speak that follow that prove tiresome and wearying. The Czech diplomats probably already had their bags packed, knowing there would be tit-for-tat retaliation.
Goodlucktoyou
I guess 80% popularity can be considered diminishing. Russian like a strong man and not a CIA sponsored guy like...
lostrune2
It's at 63% now, so if you thought it was at 80%, then that's a big 17-point drop
https://www.imrussia.org/en/analysis/3258-levada-center-polls-offer-a-bird%E2%80%99s-eye-view-of-what-russians-think-right-now
Desert Tortoise
Cancelled Czechs.
Zaphod
Nobody here knows the details of this diplomatic spat, but predictably the anti-Russia propaganda of the legacy news shows its results and we get the typical kneejerk comments.
lostrune2
But we do know many of the details
https://japantoday.com/category/world/update-2-czechs-expel-18-russian-envoys-allege-russian-link-to-ammunition-depot-blast#comment-2437044
it's different names on the passports but the same faces on the passport photos, plus passports list they're from Tajikistan and Moldova, instead of Russia in their Salisbury passports. But they used the same names at Prague Airport as the ones in Salisbury, UK
For Czech police, that included the October 2014 explosion. A crucial find was an email sent to Imex Group, the company which operated the depot.
The email claimed to come from the National Guard of Tajikistan (it was later traced to an user in Russia). It asked for two men to be given access to the site for an inspection visit. Scans of their passports were attached. The men were said to be Ruslan Tabarov from Tajikistan and Nicolaj Popa, a Moldovan citizen.
The pictures on the passports match those of the two men accused by Britain of the Salisbury poisoning.
The two men travelled to the UK in March 2018 under the names Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov. The pair then appeared on Russian TV denying involvement, claiming they were sports nutritionists who visited Salisbury to see the spire of the cathedral.
On 11 October 2014, the men used the same cover identities they used in Salisbury - Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov - to arrive at Prague airport. They stayed in Prague for two days. They then booked into accommodation in Ostrava, near the ammunition depot on 13 October. They were booked to stay until the 17 October.
The explosion took place on the 16th, and that day the pair headed to Vienna airport to fly to Moscow. The only people to die were two innocent Czech men working at the depot. Czech police issued pictures of the two suspects saying they wanted to speak to them. Russian authorities say their constitution prevents the men being extradited.
Why would Russian intelligence blow up the arms depot? One of the people storing weapons there was a Bulgarian arms dealer called Emilian Gebrev
In April 2015, six months after the Czech explosion, Gebrev fell seriously ill in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. After a month in hospital, he was released but then fell sick again. Despite suspicions, Bulgarian authorities made little progress amid talk it was simply food poisoning. It was only after events in Salisbury in 2018 that people paid more attention.
Surveillance of that car park released by a Bulgarian prosecutor last year shows one man approaching the cars of Gebrev, as well as his son and business partner who would also fall ill. A toxic substance is believed to have been smeared on the handles - similar to the way Novichok was placed on the handle of Sergei Skripal's house.
The pair involved in Salisbury and now linked to the Czech explosion have not been seen since they were identified in 2018.
Same photos, different names and countries on the passports, same poisoning technique - this should dispel any more ideas that they're mere tourists