The arson attack, which was committed by a twenty-six-year-old foreigner in the garages of a Prague transport company at the beginning of June, was apparently deliberately timed just before the elections to the European Parliament.
V conversation with the Japanese public broadcaster NHK stated that director of the Czech Security Information Service (BIS) Michal Koudelka. According to Koudelka, there is reasonable suspicion that the attack is part of a hybrid war that Russia is waging against European countries supporting Ukraine.
“The goal of Russia’s hybrid war is to divide Western society, undermine public trust in states and international institutions such as NATO, the EU, and weaken aid to Ukraine,” said Koudelka. “Imagine that two days before the European elections, a huge fire would break out in Prague, many buses would burn and many people would be injured. Someone would definitely say at that moment: Look, this is happening when we support Ukraine,” he assessed director of BIS.
However, according to Koudelka, the man from South America who carried out the terrorist attack he may not have been aware that he was working for the Russian Federation. “It is obvious that the Russians do not use professionals for these attacks, because they cost money. The Russians just want to cause panic and sow fear in people, for which non-professional attackers are quite enough,” says Koudelka.
“Russia is now relatively new to using very dangerous tactics similar to those used by Islamic terrorists, for example. They choose the ‘right person’ on the Internet and then, through a number of other persons, they give him orders to attack democratic Western countries,” explained the head of the Czech civilian counterintelligence.
The BIS believes that Russia could be behind the failed attack in June also because similar attacks recently other European countries also recorded, which do not hide the support of Ukraine. “It is very likely that the attacks in Poland and the Baltic states are also the responsibility of Russian intelligence. The modus operandi of all these actions is almost identical,” said Koudelka.
Source: zpravy.tiscali.cz
