Prague 6 wants to limit Russia’s ownership of the school building in Bubeneč
“It is our duty to take care of Ukrainian families with children who have been expelled from their country by Russian war terror. We are looking for premises where we would provide support and education for children from Ukraine, while it is Russia that owns a building in our part of the city, which is currently useless. However, it previously functioned as a school, it is approved for this purpose and fully equipped, ”said the mayor of Prague 6 and MP Ondřej Kolář (TOP 09).
The mayor had previously called on the Russian Ambassador to the Czech Republic Alexander Zmeevsky to provide facilities for teaching Ukrainians. According to Kolář, in a situation where Russia would refuse to release the building, it is necessary to initiate expropriation proceedings.
The building belongs to Russia
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out last week that the relevant territories were taking active action against Russian property in the Czech Republic, followed by reciprocal action against Czech property in Russia. The building belongs to the Russian Federation, so it would first have to be willing to negotiate a return voluntarily.
At its extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, the Prague 6 Council approved the intention to restrict Russia’s ownership of the school premises at the embassy and the subsequent entrustment of the building to Prague 6. The councilors of six city districts of the Prague City Hall and the Czech government requested cooperation in this matter. According to Hannich, the intention should be the topic of a meeting of the Prague City Council.
They need a building for children
According to Councilor Marie Kubíková (ODS), primary and kindergartens in Prague 6 are now approximately 95 percent full. The town hall establishes 15 primary and 33 kindergartens. “We really need the building of the former Russian school so that we can take care of children from Ukraine who fled to us together with their parents before the war,” said Kubíková, who is responsible for education.
According to the plans of Prague 6 councilors, a temporary educational facility and a counseling and community center for Ukrainian refugees should be established in the building on Krupkov Square, which will help the integration of Ukrainians. According to the resolution available to ČTK, the building could also have accommodation for Ukrainian pedagogy who would work in the educational facility. After the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, Prague 6 would like to use the building as a school.
The consequence of a diplomatic rift
The school is now unused. The teachers who worked in it had to leave the country after a diplomatic rift between the Czech Republic and Russia, which was the result of findings by Czech secret services and investigators that Russian secret service agents were involved in explosions in ammunition depots in Vrbětice in Zlín. Russia has been repeatedly warned that schools should operate under the regime of so-called foreign schools in the Czech Republic.
In August, the Czech Foreign Ministry criticized the Russian embassy in Prague for not doing anything to ensure that the high school at the embassy could function properly in the coming school year. Subsequently, the embassy sharply opposed it. At the time, she described “the hostile actions of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which, within the framework of a unilateral decision limiting the number of embassy employees, canceled the accreditation of its teachers” as the reason for closing the school.