Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok (source: TASR)
What should have been a moment of cross-border success in tackling hybrid threats has turned into a diplomatic rift between Slovakia and the Czech Republic – fuelled by miscommunication, mistrust, and conflicting narratives over Russian involvement.
On Wednesday, police from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine arrested a young Ukrainian man in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro. He is suspected of being behind a series of bomb threats that disrupted schools across Slovakia and the Czech Republic over the past year. But the joint operation quickly gave way to controversy when the Slovak police posted about the arrest on social media without consulting Czech officials – omitting key details in the process.
The post, published on Facebook early Wednesday, stated simply that a Ukrainian national had been detained. It made no mention of what Czech intelligence regards as a crucial part of the case: that the suspect was allegedly hired and paid by a Russian actor, possibly connected to the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency.
