PM apologizes for saying Vrbětice blasts did not constitute state terrorism

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has apologized for saying that Russian involvement in a series of explosions at a munitions depot in Moravia in 2014 that left two dead did not constitute state terrorism.

Speaking after a government meeting on Monday evening, Mr. Babiš said the Russian operation was rather “a botched attack on goods being purchased by a Bulgarian arms dealer”.

On Tuesday the prime minister said the words were ill-chosen, saying he had not intended to make light of the incident and stressing that the Vrbětice blasts were an unprecedented act of terror on the territory of the Czech Republic.