Prague wants to reduce the “Russian town” in Bubeneč
It is a half-hectare plot of land in the immediate vicinity of the Russian embassy and Stromovka Park, on which there are five apartment buildings. Unlike the neighboring land, which with the embassy building belongs entirely to Russia, this smaller land belongs to the Czech Republic.
“Why does the Russian embassy have land occupied since the August 1968 invasion? At that time, the troops of the Warsaw Pact took over part of Stromovka and it has remained so, “said the chairman of the coalition of Prague, Jan Čižinský, who will have initiated. “Now is the time to get this land back from Russia for the inhabitants and visitors of Prague,” he added.
In a resolution on Monday, the Council called on the government to negotiate the restoration of the size of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Prague before 21 August 1968 and to restore publicly accessible greenery. At the same time, according to the Prague City Hall, the government should not transfer other real estate to Russian ownership as last year. The council also requires the removal of parking spaces provided for Russian diplomats.
“The Russian embassy occupies about half of the parking spaces more than the Russian Federation makes available to our embassy in Moscow. This situation needs to be rectified and Praguers should be able to park in vacant places, “said Adam Scheinherr, Prague’s deputy for transport.
The problem is that on the land, where the gardens used to be, there are five apartment buildings that belong to Russia. The land was acquired into ownership last year as part of the solution to the housing trading case. Let Russia inhabit the drum houses and villas for the last thirty years, which, however, officially belonged to the Czech Republic and Russia has only the right to use them. Although the embassy did not pay for anything, it benefited from renting commercial space and apartments, the media pointed out, and a Russian diplomat was eventually withdrawn from the Czech Republic because of this.
Last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided that the buildings and structures that Russia and the Soviet Union had built in Prague and demonstrably paid for with their money would be rewritten in the real estate cadastre to the Russian side. Russia must do the same in favor of the Czech Republic in Moscow.
As a result, the Russian Federation owns 33 buildings in Prague’s Bubeneč, plus dozens of other properties, including land, gardens and garages. In addition to the embassy building, there are several apartment buildings and historic villas, including the house of former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš. Russia also owns buildings in Brno and Karlovy Vary and owns a recreation center near Sázava.
Activities from recent months that Russia wants to further develop its “little Moscow” in Prague. In the vicinity of the embassy is now a Russian high school, a Russian trade embassy and a Russian center of science and culture. Diary N he pointed outthat the embassy is going to build on Siberian Square, where now stands a brutalist building serving as an Orthodox temple.
According to the daily, there are proposals for the construction of a massive church with many domes in its place, but also for the construction of a five-storey administrative complex. The current building stands on land belonging to the Czech Republic, neither the City Hall of Prague 6 nor the City Hall agree with the intention.
There were about 120 employees of the Russian embassy in the Czech Republic before the deportation, of which more than 40 were diplomats. According to the annual report of the Security Information Service last year, all Russian secret services operated in the Czech Republic. The Czech correspondents also mentioned that the oversized size of the Russian embassy in the Czech Republic is a long-term security problem.
“Personally, I would also support a more significant reduction in the staff of the Russian embassy in Prague, so that it corresponds to the size of our embassy in Moscow,” said Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates). “The time has come to talk to the Foreign Ministry and the government to see if any flats will be vacated after the expulsion of diplomats,” said Hrib, who wants a list of flats the state leases from the government to the Russian embassy. “Instead of scouts, Praguers could live in them,” he added.