Putin’s inauguration will be without a Czech diplomat. The ambassador was recalled

“I do not think that our current relations between the Czech Republic and Russia correspond to our current charge d’affairs, which is Mr. Ondřejka, participating in such a ceremony on behalf of the Czech Republic,” said Lipavský.

Putin will take the presidential oath again after six years on May 7 in the Kremlin. He will take over the presidency for the fifth time, he has led the country for 24 years. Elections in Russia took place between March 15 and 17.

The Czech Republic does not have its ambassador in Moscow. Outgoing ambassador Vítězslav Pivoňka returned to Prague at the end of 2022. “We are working intensively on the exchange and the new ambassador. The current ambassador has already been recalled and I believe that a new ambassador will appear,” said Lipavský.

The opinion that the Czech Republic should not send its ambassador to Moscow, because of its disapproval of the war in Ukraine, often comes up in the discussion.

The office is temporarily headed by Deputy Ambassador Jan Ondřejka. The government party has not yet announced the name of a possible successor to the ambassador, but the media mentions the name of Daniel Koštoval, who previously worked as a deputy at the Ministry of Defense.

“I cannot imagine how the Czech Republic could appoint an ambassador to Russia, because technically it is a representative of our president at the head of the receiving state,” commented former diplomat Vladimír Votápek.

There is agreement on the procedure

Even if the Czech Republic had an ambassador in Moscow, he would not go to the inauguration. Putin’s election was questioned by the Western world. To this end, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on April 25 in Strasbourg, in which it called on EU member states and the international community not to recognize the result of the Russian presidential election as legitimate.

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“Given that they were held in the illegally occupied territories of Ukraine and were not free or fair even within Russia, they did not meet basic international electoral standards and thus lacked democratic legitimacy,” the resolution reads.

“The European Parliament urgently requests that relations with Putin be limited to matters necessary for regional peace and for humanitarian and human rights purposes, such as the exchange of prisoners, the return of deported children to Ukraine or the call for the release of political prisoners,” the resolution continues.

Jaroslav Bžoch, shadow foreign minister for the ANO movement, also agrees that no Czech diplomat will attend the inauguration.

MEP Tomáš Zdechovský (KDU-ČSL) also considers the move correct. “Vladimir Putin was not a democratically elected president and by his actions he became a mass murderer. That’s why I don’t see a single reason for us to shine a light on him,” he said.

“Czech diplomacy should only be present at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, once Vladimir Putin has finished there,” he added.

Together leader Alexandr Vondra considers it right that no government delegation or ambassador attends the inauguration. “I would leave the question of whether a junior diplomat accredited in Moscow should sit there somewhere to the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Vondra added, adding that the position should be coordinated within the Union.