Index – Abroad – Czech Head of State: no Russian agent came to Prague to poison mayors



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Czech security services have not confirmed the recent arrival in Prague of a Russian agent with a diplomatic passport who allegedly took ricin to poison three Prague officials, Czech head of state Milos Zeman told radio on Tuesday night. public service. MTI reported.

The right-wing news magazine Respekt wrote last Monday about the arrival of the alleged Russian agent in Prague. The weekly reported that the information was obtained from the Czech security services. The Respekt announcement sparked strong reactions on the Czech side and further worsened the already strained Czech-Russian relationship recently.

If indeed a Russian agent with castor bean had arrived in the Czech Republic, the Czech security services would have had to confirm this. This has not happened so far, I have not received such information.

Milos Zeman said on public radio. According to reports in the Czech media, the alleged Russian agent should kill Ondrej Kolár, mayor of the sixth district of Prague, Zdenek Hríb, mayor of Prague, and Pavel Novotny, mayor of Reporyje. All three Prague politicians received police protection last week.

According to previous newspaper reports, the agent was sent to Kolar because he ordered the removal of the statue of Soviet Marshal Ivan Konyev from a square in Prague. Hrib decided to name the square where the Russian embassy in Prague is located after Russian politician Boris Nymtsov, who was assassinated in 2015, while Novotny is criticized by Moscow for erecting a monument in the center of his repository during World War II. (ROA) soldiers who helped the Prague insurgents at the end of the war.

The Czech head of state described as exaggerated that Moscow had threatened to remove the statue of Marshal Konyev. However, he said, the Russians only reacted to the actions of “stupid and insignificant politicians.”

Zeman said of the current Czech-Russian historical disputes that he does not want anyone to interfere in Czech internal affairs. He said this also applies to the US ambassador. USA In Prague, who wrote a letter to the Czech parliament on the introduction of a digital tax that is being considered by the Czech government, calling the tax discriminatory and threatening the Czechs with American retaliation.

Czech Foreign Minister Tomás Petrícek said in the lower house of parliament on Tuesday that the Czech Republic wants to resolve its current disputes with Russia through negotiations. A similar demand was previously made by the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow.



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