Czechs Rule Rosatom Out Of Nuclear Tender Over Spat With Moscow

Prague, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Apr, 2021 ) :The Czech government said Monday it would eliminate Russia's Rosatom from a multi-billion-euro tender to build a new unit at a local nuclear plant because of the diplomatic row with Moscow.

The decision to bar the Russian state atomic agency follows tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats after Prague accused Russian secret services of being behind a fatal explosion on Czech territory in 2014.

"The Russian supplier Rosatom will not be addressed to submit documents for security assessment," Czech Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlicek told reporters.

The decision leaves France's EdF, South Korea's KHNP and US-based Westinghouse in play for a contract to build the new unit at the southern Dukovany plant by 2036.

Eighteen Russian diplomats identified by Czech intelligence as spies left Prague for Moscow on Monday afternoon, while 20 Czech diplomats expelled by Russia in retaliation are due to land in Prague later on Monday.

Citing an intelligence report, the Czech government has said Russia's military secret service GRU orchestrated a 2014 explosion that killed two people, followed by a smaller one the same year.

Czech police are seeking two men in connection with the blast, who British authorities also identified as suspects in the 2018 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

The Kremlin has dubbed the expulsion of its diplomats "provocative and unfriendly".