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Tensions with Moscow: Prague excludes Russian Rosatom and Sputnik vaccine

2021-04-20T01:33:17.538Z


The Czech government announced Monday April 19 that it was excluding Russian Rosatom from a multibillion-euro nuclear power plant tender, and ruled out using the Russian vaccine Sputnik, in the midst of a diplomatic confrontation with Moscow. Read also: Diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Prague The move comes after reciprocal expulsions of diplomats from both countries, after Prague accused th


The Czech government announced Monday April 19 that it was excluding Russian Rosatom from a multibillion-euro nuclear power plant tender, and ruled out using the Russian vaccine Sputnik, in the midst of a diplomatic confrontation with Moscow.

Read also: Diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Prague

The move comes after reciprocal expulsions of diplomats from both countries, after Prague accused the Russian secret service of orchestrating a deadly explosion on Czech territory in 2014.

"

Rosatom will not be asked to provide documents for the safety assessment

," Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlicek told reporters. After this exclusion decision, the French EDF, the South Korean KHNP and the American Westinghouse remain in the running to win the contract to build a new unit in the Dukovany nuclear power plant, located in the south of the Czech Republic. , by 2036.

For his part, the Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Hamacek, announced that his country was no longer considering purchasing Sputnik V, the vaccine against Covid-19 developed in Russia.

"

The only way now is to rely on vaccines that have been approved by the European Medicines Agency

," the EMA, he added.

Whether or not Sputnik V was used is causing turmoil on the Czech political scene.

Thus, a week ago the Czech presidency announced that Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek, who said he was opposed to using this vaccine without the European green light, had been dismissed.

Expelled diplomats

Eighteen Russian diplomats, identified by Czech intelligence services as spies, left Prague for Moscow on Monday afternoon. And conversely, 20 Czech diplomats were expelled by Russia. Citing an intelligence report, the Czech government said on Saturday that agents from the GRU, Russia's military intelligence, were implicated in the explosion of an ammunition depot in Vrbetice, eastern Czech Republic, in 2014. This explosion killed two people and caused extensive material damage.

The Czech police, for their part, said they were looking for two men carrying Russian passports bearing the same names as the suspects in the Novichok poisoning attempt by ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury for their alleged role in the explosion. , in Great Britain, in 2018. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis explained that the operation in 2014 at the Vrbetice ammunition depot targeted goods belonging to a Bulgarian arms dealer. "

He probably sold these weapons to entities fighting against Russia,

" Andrej Babis told reporters.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-04-20

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