The Czech Embassy in Moscow has been sprayed with vulgar pictures and words in Czech, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky wrote on social media today.
Czech Ambassador Daniel Kostoval will personally hand over a note of protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry, in which the Czech Republic is demanding information about the detainees and compensation for the property damage, Lipavsky said.
This afternoon, the minister told CTK that according to his information, two of the people who damaged the embassy had already been detained, but two had not.
Lipavsky published photos of the Czech embassy in Moscow after the vandalism. “Every state must ensure the protection of diplomats and the security of embassies. This attack is unacceptable,” he wrote.
He said it was necessary to first take stock of the damage. “I do not want to anticipate any further steps. At the moment, it is a protest from the ambassador to resolve this on the spot,” Lipavsky noted.
“It looks like an innocent little thing or some kind of obscenity, but these are buildings that have stone lining. So we have yet to find out how much it will cost to fix it,” he added. “I would expect that since we are protecting the Russian embassy building in Prague quite vigilantly, that the Russian side would protect our building in the same way,” the minister added.
Czech-Russian relations have been at a standstill for several years now, and have deteriorated further during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Similar incidents and attacks on diplomatic buildings in both countries are not unusual. In 2020, activists demonstrating in front of the Czech embassy in Moscow over the removal of a statue of Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev in Prague, hung a Stop Fascism sign on the embassy fence and threw several smoke bombs into the premises. The police did not intervene against them.
In St. Petersburg, Russian activists lit a smoke bomb and put up a banner with a vulgar slogan in front of the Czech Consulate General.
In the past, demonstrators have sprayed the Russian embassy building in Prague’s Bubenec district with red paint to symbolise blood over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Red paint later also appeared on the steps in front of the Russian embassy.
