The Czech authorities have placed three politicians under police protection because of the alleged Russian plans to murder them. He was taken to a secret location „because there is a Russian here who was assigned to liquidate me,“ Ondrej Kolar, mayor of the sixth district of Prague, told Prima TV yesterday. According to media reports, the background is the dispute over the removal of a statue of the Soviet war hero Ivan Konew in Prague.
Kremlin: „hoax“
The Czech weekly magazine „Respekt“ had previously reported that a Russian with a diplomatic passport had recently arrived in Prague with the gift ricin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow rejected the report as a „hoax“.
„I can only tell you that I have been given police protection,“ said Kolar. Not only he, but also the Mayor of Prague Zdenek Hrib and the mayor of another district of Prague, Pavel Novotny, were under the protection of the authorities. Hrib had already declared at the beginning of the week that he was under police protection. The police did not provide information about the events.
Hrib and Kolar had clashed with Moscow earlier this month after having a monument to Soviet General Ivan Konev removed. Russian diplomats described the process as an „unfriendly“ act of „vandalism by disturbed city officials“. For many Czechs, Konew is a symbol of Soviet-era oppression.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis also reacted to the developments: His country „will not tolerate any world power that affects our political life in any way“.
