PRAGUE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2020) The Czech Defense Ministry cannot transfer to Russia the monument to Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev, dismantled in Prague in April, because it belongs to the municipality of District Prague 6, and not to the ministry, Czech Defense Minister Lubomir Metnar said in a letter to his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu.
The authorities of Prague 6, realizing their decision of September 12, 2019, dismantled on April 3, 2020 the monument to Marshal Konev. According to the initiator of the move, the head of the district, 36-year-old Ondrej Kolar, the monument will be transferred to the Museum of the 20th Century Memory.
Russian Defense Minister Shoigu asked on April 9 his Czech counterpart Metnar to transfer the monument as soon as possible to the Russian side.
"The monument is not the property of the Defense Ministry and is not located on its territory. At the same time, according to legal standards, it cannot be included in the category of military burials," Metnar wrote.
"The municipality of District Prague 6 decided to dismantle the monument, and the Defense Ministry, in line with the law, cannot become the owner of the urban part of Prague 6, to which the monument belongs, and thus has no right to decide on its possible transfer to the Russian Federation," the minister said.
