Řeporyje to build memorial to Vlasov troops who helped liberate Prague

The local Council of Prague’s Řeporyje district unanimously voted to erect a memorial to the fallen solders of the Russian Liberation Army (Vlasovci), who took part in the liberation of Prague from Nazi Germany during the final days of World War Two. The monument should be finished in 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the war and, according to the local mayor Pavel Novotny, will be protected by a camera surveillance system and anti-graffiti coating. The Russian embassy in Prague and Russian diplomacy had previously objected to the construction of the monument. The Russian embassy in Prague has protested against the construction of the memorial in recent weeks, calling it an “absolutely mad initiative” which helps reincarnate Nazism.

The Russian Liberation Army was a military unit made up of citizens of the Soviet Union, often desperate prisoners of war, who had been recruited to fight on the German side during the last years of the war.