Official calls for removal of new memorial to fallen Russian soldiers at Prague graveyard

A Czech official has called for the removal of a memorial to fallen Soviet soldiers that was unveiled at Prague’s Olšany Cemetery last month, the news website echo24.cz reported on Tuesday. Igor Zolotarev, who is deputy chair of the government’s council for national minorities, said the sign, which is in Cyrillic script, was a mockery and a desecration of the nearby graves of those who had fled the Bolsheviks. The memorial pays tribute to fallen “internationalists”, which Mr. Zolotarev said was a term that also included Russian soldiers who had provided “international brotherly assistance” to Czechoslovakia by invading the country in 1968. The Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Prague, which is behind the sign, says it was supported by the Czech Defence Ministry, the Senate and Prague Town Hall, but all three have distanced themselves from this claim.