10.04.2020, Prague.
The cost of 13 million kroons for the dismantled bronze monument to Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev was announced in Prague, “Radio Prague” reported on April 6.
The publication reports that according to the decision of the head of the Prague-6 district Ondřej Kolář, a monument commemorating the liberation of Prague in 1945 will be erected on the site of the Konev monument. It is not reported to whom the monument will be dedicated and how it will look.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu called on the Russian Investigative Committee to bring to justice those who are responsible for the demolition of the monument to the Soviet Marshal.
In response, Kolář sent a letter to Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček, calling on diplomats to decisively resist Russian Defense Minister Shoigu.
“None of the officials of any state in the world can criminalize a free decision of a democratically elected council of the sovereign community in the Czech Republic,” writes the head of Prague-6 district in his message to the Czech Foreign Ministry.
The Czech Foreign Ministry responded to Kolářu that it hasn’t got yet the text of the new Russian law, according to which it is possible to prosecute for dismantling monuments to the heroes of World War II.
Czech President Milos Zeman objected to the demolition of the Konev monument from the beginning, but under Czech law the monument is considered the property of the Prague-6 district. The press secretary of the President, Jiří Ovčáček, expressed his support for the position of the Russian Minister of Defence. “Hate always generates new hatred, we should remember that not only on these (pre-pastoral) holidays. The removal of the statue of the liberator of Auschwitz and Czechoslovakia thus triggered a mirror-like reaction,” wrote Ovčáček.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
