FACTBOX-Czech 2014 ammunition depot blast and investigation

Czech officials repeatedly said the explosion was meant to destroy the shipment later, after it had left the country. The Imex Group lawyer told Reuters the warehouses included goods for two Bulgarian customers, but also for others.

The Czech Republic has accused Russian military intelligence of being behind a blast in an ammunition depot that killed two workers in 2014, sparking a row between the two countries that has included mutual expulsions of diplomats. Russia denies the allegations.

WHAT EXPLODED? The Vrbetice facility, 330 km (205 miles) east of Prague, is a forested complex of around 60 buildings scattered across an area of several square kilometres and owned at the time by a state military organisation.

On Oct 16, 2014, an arms and ammunition warehouse, leased by a privately held arms trading company, Imex Group, blew up. The explosion, followed by others, destroyed nearly 60 tonnes of ammunition and left a large crater. The remains of two Imex Group employees were discovered more than a month later.

Another large explosion in another warehouse took place on Dec. 3. The cleanup effort took until 2020. WHAT HAVE INVESTIGATIONS SHOWED?

A Czech investigation identified two suspects as members of the Russian GRU Unit 29155, the same agents wanted for the poisoning attempt of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury in 2018, Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said on April 18. Police said on April 17 the two men were in the Czech Republic between Oct. 11 and Oct. 16, 2014, first in Prague, then in the eastern region where the depot is located.

They used identities of Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as well as a Moldovan passport in the name of Nicolai Popa and a Tajik one issued in the name of Ruslan Tabarov, police said. The country's prosecutor general said on April 19 they used Moldovan and Tajik identities to ask to visit the Vrbetice facility.

A lawyer for Imex Group told Reuters in an email on April 20 the men who had requested the visit never made further contact with the company after their supposed arrival in the Czech Republic. Hamacek said on April 18 investigators identified the suspects as GRU officers after the Salisbury attack.

A report by the investigative website Bellingcat, Czech weekly Respekt and other media said the Czech operation involved at least six GRU operatives. WHAT WAS THE TARGET?

Czech officials said the attack was aimed at a shipment stored at the facility for a Bulgarian arms trader. Hamacek confirmed his identity as Emilian Gebrev in a local newspaper interview on April 19. Czech officials repeatedly said the explosion was meant to destroy the shipment later, after it had left the country.

The Imex Group lawyer told Reuters the warehouses included goods for two Bulgarian customers, but also for others. The reason Gebrev's shipment may have been targeted was that he was "probably" selling weapons to parties fighting Russia, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on April 19.

Gebrev's company, EMCO, disputed the Czech official account, saying in emailed statements it was probably based on incorrect or imprecise information. It said it had stocks in the warehouses but did not ship any goods from them in the months prior to and at least a year after the explosions.

It also denied reports that the goods that were blown up were aimed for re-export to Ukraine by EMCO. It said it had never exported any munitions to Ukraine that originated in the Czech Republic. Hamacek said in the April 19 newspaper interview that one Russian intelligence officer wanted by Czech police was also one of three sought by Bulgaria in connection with an unsuccessful 2015 attempt to poison Gebrev in Sofia. He did not name the suspect.