Petr David Josek / AP
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On Monday, Prague’s mayor Zdenek Hrib confirmed he had been under police protection for more than a fortnight. He said he couldn’t comment on the reasons for the protection.
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Shortly before, an investigative magazine called Respekt reported that three weeks ago a person with Russian diplomatic papers arrived in Prague allegedly planning on assassinating Hrib with poison.
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The report hasn’t been confirmed by Czech authorities, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the report was “fake.”
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The mayor of Prague confirmed he is under police protection a day after a Czech investigative magazine reported a Russian assassin had entered the country allegedly planning to kill him with poison.
In an interview with a Russian independent radio station called “Echo of Moscow,” on April 27, Prague’s mayor Zdenek Hrib confirmed he had been under police protection for more than a fortnight, The Guardian reported. He said he couldn’t comment on the reasons for the protection.
On April 26, Czech investigative magazine Respekt alleged that three weeks ago a person carrying Russian diplomatic papers arrived in Prague planning on assassinating Hrib and Ondrej Kolar, the mayor of the Prague 6 municipality, with poison. Anonymous sources told Respekt the person was carrying a suitcase filled with ricin, a deadly poison.
A Google translation of the Respekt article said sources had told the magazine the person was a member of the Russian secret service. It also said security forces knew about the person’s arrival and evaluated it “as an immediate risk for a pair of Czech politicians, whose actions in recent months have provoked the wrath of Moscow.”
The report hasn’t been confirmed by the Czech authorities.
Hrib “provoked the wrath of Moscow” by backing the renaming a square in front of the Russian embassy in Prague after Boris Nemtsov, a political opponent of Russian Leader Vladimir Putin’s, who was shot near the Kremlin in 2015.
While Kolar supported the removal of a Russian statue of a marshal named Ivan Konev. Konev is a hero in Russia but is seen by many as an oppressive symbol in the Czech Republic, according to the South China Morning Post.
Dmitri Lovetsky / AP
These two acts were the latest moves by Czech officials that looked to be designed to strengthen the country’s “pro-Western foreign policy” against the “efforts by populists to pull the country closer to countries like Russia and China,” Al Jazeera reported in February.
Of the decisions made by the Czech officials, Hrib told Al Jazeera in February: “This is in line with the Czech tradition of respect for human rights.”
In Monday’s interview, he was standing by the actions. He said: “First of all I should say that it is very important for me to stand by my belief although it means a risk for my life.”
Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the report was “fake,” according to the Guardian.
“We don’t know anything at all about this investigation. We don’t know who did the investigation. It looks like yet another canard,” he said.
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