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When Zdeněk Hřib became the first man in Prague two years ago, at just 36 years old, although he is not a record holder at the head of the Czech capital, it was conceivable that he would also engage in more far-reaching diplomatic conflicts. Especially since its movement, the Pirate Party also entered parliament in 2017, winning 22 of 200 seats, making the opposition party the third largest force in the country.
Hřib has recently been arguing with Moscow about the dismantling of the statue of Soviet Marshal Ivan Konyev and has been with bodyguards for weeks.
It has also been confronted with China
He had a dispute with Beijing last year after speaking up for the Uyghur minority and also defending Tibet, raising the Tibetan flag at Prague City Hall. Hřib, who told the Washington Post, said this was not at odds with the 1951 agreement signed by China, which gave the area broad autonomy. Accordingly, he did not accept the phrase of the “one China” principle in the twinning agreement with Beijing and requested to be removed from it. Because of this, the Chinese capital tended to withdraw from the deal.
Therefore, Prague lost one sister city but gained another, said Hřib, who in January this year put further pressure on Communist-led China, stressing the importance of defending democratic regimes after regime change: signed a twinning agreement with Taipei. There is no particular need to explain what it means for China that Beijing has essentially been replaced by the renowned island capital. Hřib is already close to the 24 million independent Taiwanese who worked there as an internal doctor.
Then the matter of the statue came to light
During the Chinese snails, he also managed to make a statement with another permanent member of the UN Security Council: as early as 2018, the year of his election, he pulled out the statue of Marshal Konyev, so the ball is now standing. In the summer of the year, an additional sign was placed on the entire figurative statue of the two-time hero of the Soviet Union, according to which II. He arrived in Berlin in the First World War. After the victory, the Marshal, canonized as the liberator of Prague, participated in the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968.
Moscow protested the signal, if only because, according to the Russian leadership, Konyev’s role in Czechoslovakia ended with the liberation of Prague, and in 1968 he did not participate in the Brezhnev doctrine, the military actions of the Warsaw Pact, that is, the invasion of Czechoslovakia. The role of the marshal is unclear, but there is no doubt that on April 9, 1968, he traveled to Czechoslovakia at the head of a military delegation, which Czech historians value in preparation for the August invasion. (Read more about Konyev in our box at the end of this article.)
In any case, the statue, erected only in 1980, remained in the same way as the peak in the Kremlin, which was fueled by the Prague municipality’s decision last September that Konyev should abandon the capital’s sixth district, the XX. to the 19th century museum, to the sculptures.
THE DISASSEMBLY WAS CARRIED OUT EIGHT MONTHS LATER, BEFORE APRIL, IN THE SHADOW OF THE VIRUS OF THE CROWN.
- Why did the Prague leaders remove the monument?
- Is it possible that you wanted to poison the mayor?
- What does the statue of Marshal Konyev mean to the Kremlin?
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The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia also protested against the action. The KSČM is not at the level of a Thürmer Labor Party, it is regularly above 10 percent, it is represented in the Czech Parliament and the European Parliament, and although it is in political quarantine, it now has cooperation with the Social Democratic Party at the regional level and even has the external support of Andrej Babiš. UN-Socdem minority government.
The Czech President of the Socdems Miloš Zeman
He also accused the Prague municipality of cleaning the statue taking advantage of external restrictions due to the coronavirus epidemic. Although he considered it an exaggeration that the Investigative Authority of Russia had initiated an investigation
HRIB Relativizing the results of World War II, an attempt to rewrite history, but the president also quickly eased his criticism of Moscow: on the one hand, he told the United States that they could not interfere in Czech internal affairs, such as Russia. on the other, it could not, that the whole controversy was caused by the stupidity of the politicians of the Czech municipality.
There were also some mandatory protests at the Czech missions in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, which the Czech government protested, while also indicating to Zeman that his views did not coincide with those of the President.
According to the Czech Foreign Minister, the issue of the statue is not in conflict with the Czech-Russian friendship treaty signed in 1993, as it does not say that Konyev should be in the sixth district. Tomáš Petříček, who is the same age as Hřibbel, also sent a message to the Russian embassy, which protested in mid-April simply by citing the interstate agreement. The Social Democratic Chancellor did not fall in love with the opposition-led capital for action, pointing out that the government has no voice here, the statue is the property of the municipality and the right to decide is theirs. Initially he raised the possibility that it might be possible to deliver the statue to Moscow later, but then the government said they could not give away what was not theirs. The statue, then, will not become a monument of insult in Russia.
Another problem is that Russia now suffers from Konyev’s lack of headaches, but the coronavirus, which is not only causing economic damage but is spreading at a rapid rate: the number of infected people is more than 10,000 for the sixth day. So the epidemic is already in the United States and in addition to Brazil, Russia is already one of the focal points, and even because of this, Moscow even had to give up its annual military parade on Red Square.
But what about the castor diplomat?
In addition to all this, the news appeared in April that a Russian man had arrived at the Czech capital airport with a diplomatic passport and a wheeled briefcase to avenge the removal of the statue. But you don’t know any more about who the man who came with the neurotoxin might have been, if any.
According to Zeman, this did not happen, because then the services would have told him: the question is, of course, if he had been told, if the President had told him, or if he had told him, he could have been notified. Along with Hřib, the leader of the sixth district, Ondřej Kolář, also received police protection. According to the mayor, the decision is in the hands of the police and the secret service, no one else can reveal more about the case, the existence of which the Kremlin calls completely unfounded. It is true that the spokesman for the Russian president could not say otherwise due to the nature of the matter.
“I imagine myself planning such an action without further ado,” Alexei Torubarov told Index. The Russian refugee, who has struggled for refugee status in Hungary for six years, changing Hungarian asylum procedure through the EU court, knows what he is talking about: he was once attacked in an Austrian refugee camp. (You can read more about Torubarov’s intricate romance with Andrei Lugovoi, who is also suspected of being involved in Litvinenko’s murder, and which also led to the crisis in the Czech government.)
It is unlikely that someone from the services has acted independently at a lower level, Konyev’s case will be greater. (It is also unlikely that Magomed, who claims to be Chechen, had come out of in action In Budapest in 2017).
According to Torubarov, after the attack on Sergei Scripal, several other Russians who fled abroad may discover that they died not for health reasons but for something else, such as the rookies. That whether there really was such an intention, as against Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium in London, is a matter of whether the organs acted awkwardly and fell, or indeed was it more important to indicate that they were even capable of such action.
According to Torubarov, both are possible: counter-selection also works in the secret services, but the latter is also not unrealistic, because “Putin’s foreign reputation no longer matters, he only plays before the internal public that everyone abroad fears us.” This is at home, impressed, discouraged to protest against the system.
Kitchenev stayed that way
Konyev also did not completely disappear from Prague. The marshal is also named after a larger highway in the Czech capital, although the name change was planned earlier. Something similar had already happened to the Marshal: he was removed from the list of honorary citizens of Berlin in 1992, although post-Soviet Russia had not opposed the removal of Soviet statues at the time, he was trying to keep his distance from the heritage Soviet. In the center of Moscow, and the historical names of various cities have been restored.
However, the leadership at the time worked differently: the geopolitical defeat of the Soviet Union was not a defeat but a success in democratizing Russia, but during Putin’s 20 years of leadership, Moscow sees itself as a worthy heir to the Soviet past, even if he treats his own twentieth century. history Therefore, it is an insult to Russia today to move every statue of World War II that earned the Kremlin a victory, and for the countries concerned the undoubted arrival of peace, the defeat of Nazi Germany, the beginning decades of rule by pro-Soviet communist regimes.
1956, Berlin Wall, 1968
Ivan Konyev was already a deputy in the Tsarist army, but after the Bolshevik inauguration, he rose intact in the ranks. In the 1930s, he led Soviet troops in Mongolia, then led the Habarovsk military district, and, at the start of World War II, the North Caucasus.
He was almost captured in Smolensk, but he participated in the defense of Moscow and was later appointed commander-in-chief of the Western Front. He was unsuccessful, instead moving to the northwest front, but he was also unable to show success here. Trust in him had not yet been broken, and he eventually succeeded at the head of the steppe front, even during the Soviet advance, his troops played a significant role in the Battle of Kursk. In March 1944, his troops were the first to move outside the territory of the Soviet Union. Leading the first Ukrainian front, he advanced to Silesia and then was able to march to Prague.
In 1945 he was commander of the Soviet forces stationed in Austria.
He was still present at all important events after the war: in the year of Stalin’s death, he became a member of the Central Committee, a position he held until his death in 1973.
After Stalin’s death, he was involved in the death sentence for Lavrentyy Beria, the leader of previous conceptual claims and the head of the secret service, who had a chance to gain power.
From 1955 he was the commander-in-chief of the united forces of the Warsaw Pact, in his capacity he played an essential role in the repression of the Hungarian revolution of 1956.
In 1961 he was appointed commander of the Soviet troops in the GDR for just a year, and the Berlin Wall was erected in his time.
Starting in 1963, the former commander-in-chief and deputy defense minister essentially resigned, but they were reactivated in 1968, to what extent, the question: Moscow said then-71-year-old Konyev had no role, but Czech historians said that It was no coincidence that on May 9, 1968. Speaking of which, he was the head of a military delegation visiting Czechoslovakia, whose task, instead of celebrating friendship, was to spy on the possibility of the Soviet invasion in August.
Konyev died in 1973, was buried in the Kremlin wall, and to this day rests in a VIP cemetery on Red Square.
(Cover image: Dismantling of the statue of Soviet Marshal Ivan Konyev on April 3, 2020. Photo: Michal Cizek / AFP)
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