The Russian embassy in Prague has said it will not take an address on Boris Nemtsov Square after the plaza in front of the building was renamed to honour the Russian opposition politician who was murdered in 2015.
Czech media reported last week that the embassy had changed its official address in order to avoid the reference to Nemtsov, a critic of Vladimir Putin who was gunned down in sight of the Kremlin.
In a pointed note, the Russian embassy accused the Czech foreign ministry of politicising a “technical” step to maintain the embassy’s official address as the one used by its consular division.
Calling the street “historical” and “the probability of its renaming much lower than that of the recently appeared ‘Boris Nemtsov square’”, it wrote: “The embassy has decided to continue using 36 Korunovacni Street as its official address.”
Prague councillors voted to rename the square, previously called Under the Chestnuts, to mark the fifth anniversary of Nemtsov’s death, a symbolic step also taken in Washington, Kyiv and Vilnius.
The move was championed by Prague’s mayor, Zdeněk Hřib, who said it was connected to the “Czech human rights tradition”.
“It seems odd to me. Even Vladimir Putin said the murder of Boris Nemtsov was wicked and cynical and its organisers must be punished,” Hřib said this week, according to Czech media.
Tensions have flared recently between Russia and the Czech Republic. This month, the bronze statue of Marshal Ivan Konev, a Soviet-era military commander, was removed from its pedestal in Prague, leading to protests from the Russian embassy.
On Monday, a senior Russian Orthodox church official noted that Russia had promised a symmetrical response and would “probably have to dismantle on the territory of the Russian Federation a monument to some Czech figure”.
