PRAGUE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th May, 2021) The Czech parliament has suspended its closed session on Interior Minister Jan Hamacek's alleged plans to "trade out" the Vrbetice case for holding top-level Russia-US talks in Prague, as well as for deliveries of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, but it may continue on Wednesday, media reported.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Seznam Zpravy newspaper reported, citing high-ranking sources that Hamacek, who is also the first deputy prime minister, planned to visit Russia in mid-April in order to discuss the possibility of Prague keeping silent on the Vrbetice incident in exchange for free Sputnik V deliveries to the Czech Republic, as well as the possibility of holding a Russia-US summit in the Czech capital. In the end, Hamacek's trip to Moscow was canceled as police, special services, the prosecutor general and the Czech ambassador to Russia convinced him to abandon his plan. Hamacek himself has rejected the media claims.
The leaders of Czech opposition parties, on their part, said that if the information about Hamacek's intentions is confirmed, he should immediately resign, and the parliament should hold a confidence vote in the cabinet.
According to the Czech Television, only Hamacek, who denied all the accusations against him, and representatives of opposition parties managed to speak at Tuesday's meeting. Neither Prime Minister Andrej Babis, nor the heads of the special services invited to the meeting received an opportunity to speak. The parliament speaker suspended the closed session because there was a scheduled open meeting on other issues.
On April 17, Babis said that Prague suspected Russia's special services of involvement in the explosions in Vrbetice in 2014, and was expelling 18 Russian diplomats from the Czech Republic. Moscow retaliated by expelling 20 Czech diplomats, which prompted Prague to order more diplomats out of the country in response.
Russia has slammed the Czech Republic's claims of Russia's involvement in the October 2014 blasts at an ammunition depot in the town of Vrbetice as groundless. The Russian Foreign Ministry has pointed out that the Czech government earlier blamed the blasts that killed two Czech nationals on companies that owned the warehouses.
