DISINFO: Local Gauleiter wants to remove the statue of Marshall Konev, the liberator of Prague
SUMMARY
Prague was liberated after Berlin’s fall. This was not a walk in the park. Konev’s army was set in to the operation, 12,000 of our soldiers died, liberating Prague. The citizens of Prague erected the statue of Konev as a sign of gratitude. And suddenly some local guy, representing a borough, declares that the borough should take down the monument of the liberator and the saviour of the city. Some local kind of Gauleiter. Now Czech President Milos Zeman, a wise and educated man, has said that this is an outrage and this mustn’t be done. We are, of course, grateful towards the President for his support. We hope that after this declaration, the [local] authorities will make the correct decision.
RESPONSE
This is a false claim and one of several disinformation cases about the statue of Marshall Konev in Prague. It is also consistent with common pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Russophobia and the supposedly hostile anti-Russian intentions of the West, based on which Russia can cast itself as the victim. The article's description of the Head of Prague's Municipal District 6 as "Gauleiter" is consistent with the Kremlin's well-established efforts to smear its opponents as "Fascists" and "Nazis". The monument to Marshall Konev was erected in 1980 during the "normalisation" period in communist Czechoslovakia. The leadership of Prague's Municipal District 6, which retains legal ownership of the statue, has voted to move the monument to a museum and replace it with a memorial commemorating Soviet sacrifices in the fight against Hitler in general, and the liberation of Prague in particular. More information available here. The Kremlin has a longstanding track record of smearing and misrepresenting efforts by post-communist countries to address the legacy of Soviet memorials. For similar cases, see here.