NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke in defense of the mayor (head) of the district Prague 6 ondřej Kolář, on the initiative of which was to dismantle the monument to Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev liberated the city from the Nazis.
In connection with an alleged threat to his life kolář recently received police protection. Its still got two of the Prague politicians – primator (Chapter) of the city zdeněk Grib, at whose initiative the area in front of the Russian Embassy in the Czech Republic was renamed into the square of Boris Nemtsov and the mayor of the outlying area Reporyje who installed the monument to Vlasov.
On Thursday, Stoltenberg gave an interview to Czech TV. The moderator asked the NATO Secretary General the question whether he thinks that in this situation, "we are talking about Russia’s attempt to snowsuits?"
"don’t want to indulge in speculation, but I think that any attempts of intimidation and threats to democratically elected authorities is absolutely unacceptable. When something happens, we are talking about trying to undermine our democracy. Elected to their positions, people have the right to make those decisions they believe to be correct", – said Stoltenberg.
The authorities of the district Prague 6 dismantled 3 April, the monument to Konev. According to the mayor of the district of ondřej Kolář, the monument will be placed in the created by the city Museum memory of the twentieth century. The Russian foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions "outrageous and cynical". The Kremlin said that Moscow would prefer to see a monument to Konev restored to Czech or Russian soil. The RF IC opened a criminal case over the desecration of symbols of Russia’s military glory, committed publicly, the Russian investigators intend to prosecute participants of the demolition of the monument.
The mayor Kolar filed a complaint against Russia to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Her reaction to that letter are still unknown.
