MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2020) Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal case after authorities in the city of Prague dismantled a monument to Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev, Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said on Friday.
"A criminal case has been opened, on the grounds of ... the public desecration of Russian military symbols," Petrenko told reporters.
In September, authorities in the Prague 6 district initially decided to remove the monument to Marshal Konev. The statue was dismantled on April 3.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that the removal of the monument to Marshal Konev would not go unanswered. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has also slammed the decision of authorities in the Czech capital to dismantle the monument.
The monument to Marshal Konev was constructed in Prague at the initiative of the city authorities in the late 1970s-early 1980s, with funds raised from local residents in gratitude to the commander for ordering against using heavy artillery during the storming of the Nazi German-occupied city in May 1945, saving Prague from destruction.
