Russia denies plot to poison Prague mayor

The mayor of Prague has said he is under police protection after it was reported that he was the target of a Russian poison plot.

Boris Nemtsov, a critic of Vladimir Putin, was murdered near the Kremlin in 2015. Picture: AP

The mayor of Prague has said he is under police protection and is ready to risk his life for civil freedoms, after it was reported that he was the target of a Russian poison plot.

Zdenek Hrib was alerted after a Russian man with a diplomatic passport entered the Czech ­Republic carrying a briefcase containin­g the poison ricin, Czech newspaper Respekt ­reported.

Mr Hrib was allegedly in danger­ because of his part in renaming the Prague square where the Russian embassy is based after Boris Nemtsov, the former Russian deputy prime minister and critic of President Vladimir Putin who was murdered near the Kremlin in 2015.

Mr Hrib, 38, said he could not comment directly on whether there had been a poison plot, “due to a decision of the police”.

“But I can confirm that I have police protection, that it was set up around Catholic Easter, two weeks ago,” he said.

“However, if the Russian agency is trying to kill me with ricin or novichok or polonium, it’s a thing that I cannot really comment on right now.”

He said it was “very important for me to stand by my beliefs, even if it means a risk for my life”, and that it was his “duty to advocate free speech not only for me but also for other citizens”.

The Russian government ­reacted angrily this month when a statue of Soviet general Ivan Konev was removed from a district in Prague. Prague officials said the statue would be moved to a museum and a new monument honouring the city’s liberation from the Nazis would be installed in its place.

Respekt claimed that the man who flew into Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport from Russia was met by a diplomatic car and taken to the Russian embassy.

“The security forces knew about the arrival of the traveller and evaluated the man as an immedi­ate risk for a pair of Czech politicians, whose actions in recent months have provoked the wrath of Moscow,” the newspaper said.

These politicians were Mr Hrib and Ondrej Kolar, a councillor with responsibility for the district from which the statue of General Konev was removed.

Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, described the poison report as “a canard”.

The Russian embassy in Prague rejected the newspaper report. “The allegations in the story are absolutely baseless” and ­designed to “discredit” Russia, an embassy statement said.

While ­declining to answer questions on details of the ­alleged plot, Mr Hrib made clear that he had concerns about the pro-Russian tendencies of Czech President Milos Zeman and his staff.

He highlighted the fact that Vratislav Mynar, the chief of Mr Zeman’s presidential office, did not have security clearance.

“It is quite obvious that in a situation — if there would be a possible plot of, for example, a Russian agency trying to murder our citizen here in Czech Republic — this could be an obvious problem,” he said.

The Times, AP