Update: 09/12/2022 15:01
Issued by: 09/12/2022, 15:01

Prague – The base of the statue depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin as a goblin, which has been standing on Interbrigády Square in Prague 6 since Monday, was sprayed by someone. The person in question wrote on it I hope for war or peace? The police are investigating the case on suspicion of criminal damage to another’s property. Police spokeswoman Violeta Siřišťová told ČTK. A photo of the described statue appeared on twitter account Gift for Putin campaign, providing money for weapons for Russia-invaded Ukraine. Its announcer, businessman Dalibor Dědek, also organized Monday’s installation of Putin’s statue.

A statue of the Russian president, perhaps as a goblin, which temporarily stands in the place where, until the spring of 2020, there was a monument to the controversial Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev. According to the author Dušan Dostál, the Putin statue is intended, among other things, to point out the culprit of the current increase in energy prices. It is supposed to be on the Bubenec Square for 30 days, after which it is to go to auction and the auctioned money is to be used to buy weapons for Ukraine, which will last nine months of the Russian invasion.

The Gift for Putin campaign said on Twitter today that it has the first offer to buy the statue, with an interested party already offering $50,000 (roughly CZK 1.16 million) for it.

A police spokeswoman for ČTK said that the police learned about the vandalism today from the media. “The patrol on the spot discovered that she had been sprayed. We have documented the matter and are dealing with the case on suspicion of committing the crime of damaging another’s property,” Siřišťová added.

Dostál created the sculpture called Demon Ahriman, a demon from Persian mythology, at an international meeting of artistic blacksmiths. It took him 14 days to work on it, while she worked 20 hours a day. According to Dědek, who was behind its installation in Prague 6, the statue should send a signal to the Czech Republic that the problem in Ukraine still persists and needs to be solved. According to him, the second signal should be given to the Ukrainians that the Czechia is with them. And the third should be to Russia, because just as the statue of Marshal Koněv used to stand here, which was also perceived positively, now they are spitting on their history, added Dědek.

Koněv’s statue was removed from Bubeneč Square in the spring of 2020 by the Prague 6 Town Hall based on a decision from September 2019, when it was also decided that the monument would replace the monument to the liberation of Prague at the end of World War II. The monument to the military leader, which is marked for the liberation of Prague from the Nazis, but also for the bloody suppression of the anti-communist uprising in Hungary in 1956, was a frequent target of vandals. The Russian embassy called the removal of the monument outrageous. At the time, Czech communists, Russia through its Prague embassy and President Miloš Zeman strongly protested against the town hall’s progress.

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