Szabolcs Panyi on the Hungarian link to the GRU assassination attempt

In October 2014, two Czech employees lost their lives when a munitions depot exploded in Vrbětice, in southeastern Czechia. A few weeks later, another explosion occurred at the same site. What initially looked like an industrial accident later turned out to be a sabotage operation by Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, aimed at preventing arms shipments to Ukraine and other conflict zones. The operation, moreover, involved the same Russian agents who, four years later, tried to kill former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter with the Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England. The story also has a particularly interesting Hungarian thread: Budapest may have played an important logistical role in preparing the attack, as two GRU officers arrived there under diplomatic cover just a few days before the deadly explosion.

A joint investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, Der Spiegel and the Czech outlet Respekt revealed the details behind the operation, and in 2024 Czech authorities officially confirmed the responsibility of Russian military intelligence. To this day, no one has been held criminally liable for the deaths of the two victims, since Moscow refused to cooperate. The story shows not only that Russia was willing to carry out deadly sabotage operations on the territory of NATO and EU member states well before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but also what role Hungary may have played in the hinterland of such operations. The author of the original article promises that in his forthcoming book he will also name the person who, from Budapest, helped prepare the attack.