Dismantling the monument to Marshal Konev and thereby causing the Russian-Czech scandal, Ondřej Kolář made new revelations. According to him, until the last he wanted to solve the problem peacefully, and the scandal itself was actually provoked by the Russian side.
Dirty fuss that has nothing to do with law. That’s how the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the latest revelations of the head of the Prague-6 district, Ondrej Kolář, about who is to blame for the demolition story (the Czechs call it dismantling, but, in fact, it’s about demolition) of the monument to Marshal Ivan Konev in the Czech capital , which Konev freed and saved from destruction during the Second World War.
In an interview with Czech media, Kolarge said that he was not to blame for the scandal, but ... Moscow. “The monument could continue to stand in its place if Russia did not do what it did through its embassy,” said Mr. Kolarge.
It follows from his words that the local authorities have always advocated goodness and justice, therefore in 2018 they hung a sign on the Konev monument that the marshal, well-known to the citizens of Prague for the liberation of their city, was also involved in the suppression of the uprising in Hungary in 1956, built the Berlin Wall in 1961, and also prepared the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The latter actually wasn’t, since the marshal left the leadership in the USSR Armed Forces in 1963, but he headed the delegation that visited Czechoslovakia in 1968 - and there, according to Kolarge and his like-minded people, there were supposedly spies, which means participation Koneva in preparation for the invasion.
Moscow categorically did not like such accusations of "the collapse of the chapel in the XIV century", and the Russians demanded to remove the tablet. Understanding that it provokes a negative attitude towards the monument from Prague, for whom the events of 1968 are still a painful memory. In response to the regional authorities' proposal “to give the monument to the Russians so that they would put it in the embassy where it will be protected” Russia, to the surprise of Koláří, for some reason stated that the protection of the monument was the responsibility of the Czech authorities.
Just imagine, Prague and Moscow signed an agreement on friendship and cooperation in 1993, including the obligation to protect the monument to Konev and treat him with respect - and now, do you have to abide by these agreements? For some reason, the Russians called for compliance - and even demanded that the district administration put police officers in his possession. To which the brave soldier Kolarge demanded that the Russians “not indicate what we should do with our property” and threatened to send a monument from the square to scrap metal.
Actually, he practically fulfilled his ultimatum, at the same time “without bending the stick” and just sending the dismantled monument to the warehouse. Therefore, according to Ondrej Kolarge, the incident is nothing more than a provocation of Moscow.
In this dirty fuss, which has nothing to do with either law or objective realities, the accents of Kolarge’s speech are interesting. They differ from his previous statements - he is now not an anti-communist hero, but the law-abiding head of the district, who until the last attempted to solve the problem through a civilized dialogue.
According to a member of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, Sergei Tsekov, Kolarge is trying in this way to justify himself to Czech society. Yes, most of the citizens of the country condemned Russia's intervention in the internal affairs of the Czech Republic and, in their opinion, too aggressive the reaction of Moscow to the demolition of the monument, but the Czechs at the same time condemned Kolarge himself for the provocative actions that caused the conflict. Some wrote that he had quarreled the Czech Republic with Moscow out of the blue (for Russia's reaction to the demolition of a monument protected by the Russian-Czech agreement from any encroachment, and even on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the victory in World War II, was understandable), others directly accused of contempt Prague history and disrespect for the memory of a man who sacrificed the lives of Soviet soldiers in order to free Prague and save it from destruction.
As a result, Kolarge did not succeed in gaining popularity in the wake of the scandal - he was completely supported only by an absolute minority of Czechs. According to the assistant professor of the Russian State Humanitarian University, a Czech specialist Vadim Trukhachev, he became an object of hatred for “not his” electorate, and undecided voters considered him a dubious provocateur. Worse, after the Czechs recognized the fake story about Russian intelligence agents who had allegedly arrived in order to poison the fighter against the Soviet legacy of Kolarge, on the orders of the angry Putin and Shoigu, the district head himself (whom the police had taken under guard and hid in safe houses) became gradually turn from a hero into a laughing stock. So, even for some dissatisfied with Russia (that is, not completely frostbitten Russophobes, thinking of zero-sum categories of games), the Collage is no longer a defender, but a simple clown - fortunately enough anti-Russian politicians in the Czech Republic and local fighters with Kremlin influence can choose a more worthy favorite.
Therefore, Senator Aleksey Pushkov is right, who called Kolarge’s excuses "the height of hypocrisy and cynicism," and also called on opponents to "bear their own sin." And here we are talking about both the Collage itself (which will have to wash for a long time from such a bright and badly smelling spot in its biography), and about the Czech authorities. Allowing the Russophobe adventurer or, more simply, a fool of regional scale to disgrace the country and jeopardize its relations with Russia.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.