Russian diplomats to be made homeless in Prague?

Published 07 July, 2008, 15:34

Lisbeth Popper, a daughter of a former Czech banker, is demanding the return of a house and land her family used to own in pre-war Czechoslovakia. After WW2 the property was occupied by the Russian Embassy in Prague.

Lisbeth Popper estimates the property at around 40 million euros and has filed a suit against the Russian Federation and the Czech Republic. If her claim is upheld by the court, the country’s government will have to pay the compensation and Russia to return the property to her.

Popper claims that from 1927 the land and the house in the prestigious Bubenec neighbourhood in Prague belonged to her father, Jiri Popper. However, the Jewish family had their property confiscated by the Nazis in 1939, when Czechoslovakia was invaded by Hitler's troops. For the next six years the house was used as Gestapo headquarters.

In 1945 when the war ended, the Poppers claimed their family home back. However, in line with Czechoslovakian President Edvard Benes’s nationalisation decree, the property was nationalised and granted to the Soviet Union. The Soviet, and then Russian, Embassy has been located in the building ever since.

Aktualne.cz publishes a quote from the official charge against the Czech and Russian states: “Edvard Benes acted just as the German state police did – there is no difference in their property seizure. In both cases it was illegal and an abuse of power. It is all the more surprising when you consider that Benes acted in the time of freedom.”

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