Czech-Russian Relations Headed for ‘Beyond Catastrophic’

Prime Minister Andrej Babis announced during a shocking press conference that the Czech security services have clear evidence of the involvement of GRU's specialised 29155 unit, which is believed to be tasked with sabotage, subversion and assassination, in the explosion. Prague will expel 18 embassy staff who it says are members of the Russian secret services. They have 48 hours to leave the Czech Republic.

Police, meanwhile, released images of Anatoly Chepig and Alexander Mishkin, the GRU agents accused of attempting to kill the Skripals with Novichok, detailing their involvement in the 2014 blast. Alongside the infamous mug shots, the police appealed for help in tracking down the pair.

Russia's Foreign Ministry called the Czech actions a provocation, and claimed "American footprints" are clear. "We will take retaliatory measures that will force the authors of this provocation to fully understand their responsibility to destroy the foundations of normal relations between our countries," it said in a statement.

Ondrej Vesely, chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said on television that, "This was the largest attack on our territory since 1968", alluding to the Soviet invasion of that year. And Jan Hamacek, deputy prime minister and acting foreign minister, expressed regret that the incident would "fundamentally damage Czech-Russian relations".

Analysts agree, suggesting the events will have a devastating effect. "Relations were already far from ideal. More and more issues have been cropping up in recent years," Pavel Havlicek, an expert on Eastern Europe at Prague's Association for International Affairs, tells BIRN. "But this puts them beyond catastrophic."

A car of the Russian ambassador stands in front of the...