Russian Embassy in Prague. Take a look behind the walls of Korunovační Street
Russian Ambassador Alexander Zmeevsky has been in office in Prague for five years. Until last year, when most Russian diplomats were expelled during the Czech-Russian diplomatic crisis caused by the explosion of ammunition depots in Vrbětice, it was one of the strongest foreign embassies in the Czech Republic. Since June 2021, there have been seven diplomats and twenty-five administrative staff.
On the anniversary of the assassination of former Deputy Prime Minister and dissident Boris Nemtsov, 300 people protested against the invasion of Ukraine today at the Russian embassy in Prague. According to the police officers present, some of the protesters have been standing in front of the embassy since Thursday, the day of the invasion, and they are sleeping in front of it.
A large Ukrainian flag is flying at the entrance gate to the embassy complex of the Russian Federation. The walls around the complex are spray-painted with inscriptions such as “Embassy of Hell” or they are stained with red paint.
The Russian embassy in Prague has been accompanied by controversy in recent years. In February 2020, the square was Pod Kaštany at the Russian embassy, an initiative of the Prague City Hall, named after a Russian opposition politician and former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. He was assassinated in 2015. The Russian embassy responded by changing its delivery address.
The most significant weakening of the embassy so far occurred in April 2021, when in response to the findings of the Czech security services that two people died during the explosions of ammunition depots in Vrbětice in 2014, two Russian agents of the Russian counterintelligence GRU are most likely. Based on this finding, the Czechia expelled a number of diplomats from the Russian embassy. Compared to the original number of 48 diplomatic staff and 81 staff, this is a significant reduction in the staff of the Russian embassy.
Photographed in October 2018 for the Archip.eu architectural school, as part of a broader documentation of the Petschk family’s real estate and the work of architect Max Spielmann in Prague and other places in the Czech Republic.