Russia accuses Czech Republic of having stored forbidden anti-personnel mines at Vrbětice depot

Russia has accused the Czech Republic of having stored anti-personnel mines at the Vrbětice munitions depot. Anti-personnel mines are banned both by Czech law and international regulations following from the 1996 Ottawa Convention. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday the Czech Republic should explain what exactly was in storage at the munitions depot.

The news site Novinky.cz notes in connection with the story that according to a 2016 verdict of the Regional Court in Zlín which looked into the matter private  companies did not store mines as such at the depot, but only mine casings, which is not in violation of regulations.

A diplomatic row broke out last week between Prague and Moscow over a series of explosions at the depot in 2014, after the Czech government accused Russian agents of orchestrating the explosions.