Police question Interior Minister over alleged link between unrealised Moscow trip, Vrbětice explosion, Sputnik doses

Minister of Interior Jan Hamáček spoke to police on Tuesday about an unrealised trip to Moscow during which he allegedly planned to offer to silence a deadly Russian operation on Czech soil in exchange for doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Czech Television reports.

Hamáček had announced a trip to Moscow last spring, when also acting foreign minister, when he already had information pointing to Russian responsibility for the 2014 Vrbětice explosions.

The Police’s national organised crime unit had requested that Mr. Hamáček be brought in for questioning. He categorically denies having even considered negotiating with the Kremlin to get Sputnik V doses in exchange for concealing evidence of Russia’s complicity in the fatal 2014 incident.