Czech Nationalists Take Responsibility For Desecration Of Monuments To Red Army

Czech Nationalists Take Responsibility for Desecration of Monuments to Red Army

Representatives of a little-known Czech nationalist group, National and Social Front, said on Friday that they took responsibility for the desecration of the monuments to Red Army soldiers who died during the liberation of the country

PRAGUE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2019) Representatives of a little-known Czech nationalist group, National and Social Front, said on Friday that they took responsibility for the desecration of the monuments to Red Army soldiers who died during the liberation of the country.

On Wednesday and Thursday, unknown persons doused the monuments to Red Army liberators in Ostrava and Brno, respectively, with red paint. They also wrote "Budapest 1956," a reference to an armed uprising against the pro-Soviet communist regime that began in Hungary on October 23, 1956.

"We decided in this way to recall the real uprising of the people against communism in 1956 in Hungary," the nationalists wrote on Facebook.

The Russian Embassy in the Czech Republic and the Czech Defense Ministry condemned the vandalism of monuments under which the Soviet soldiers who died in 1945 during the liberation of the republic were buried.

"The monument is a symbol of respect and gratitude to all those who fought and laid down their lives for the freedom and democracy of our country," the ministry's spokeswoman told Sputnik.

Czech and Russian defense ministries are responsible for complying with the provisions of the Russian-Czech intergovernmental agreement on the mutual maintenance of military graves of 1999.

Police officials in Ostrava and Brno stated that they were investigating the incidents. Desecration of monuments implies punishment of up to one year in prison.