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Controversial Soviet-era statue removed in Prague |
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A man covers the statue of Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Stepanovic Konev laying on a truck as it is made ready for removal on April 3, 2020 in Prague. The municipal district of Prague 6 has ordered to remove the statue of Ivan Konev, a controversial Red Army general during WWII. The statue will be replaced by a memorial dedicated to the liberation of Prague in 1945. Michal Cizek / AFP.
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PRAGUE (AFP).- Prague authorities on Friday said they had removed a controversial Soviet-era statue, despite protests from Moscow, to make way for a World War II memorial.
The Russian embassy on Friday protested the removal of the bronze statue of Soviet general Ivan Konev, terming it an "unfriendly" act of "vandalism by unhinged municipal representatives."
While Konev is regarded as a hero in Russia, many Czechs see him as a symbol of Soviet-era oppression.
He led Red Army troops that liberated Prague from the Nazis in 1945, but he was also in charge of Operation Whirlwind, which crushed the anti-Soviet Hungarian Uprising of 1956.
Prague district 6 mayor Ondrej Kolar told the Czech CTK news agency that Konev's statue would be placed in a "museum dedicated to the history of the 20th century in Czechoslovakia."
Pro-Russian Czech President Milos Zeman echoed Russian outrage over the move as "an abuse of the state of emergency", referring to a government-imposed lockdown to stem the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.
On August 21, 2019, the anniversary of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, someone sprayed "No to the blood-covered marshal, we shall not forget" on Konev's statue that was erected by the then communist regime in 1980.
Prague city hall then covered up the statue, but pro-Konev protesters tore down the tarp and held a rally in its support.
© Agence France-Presse
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