Russian House in Prague targeted with Molotov cocktails overnight

Czech police and emergency workers were called to the Russian House in Prague on the night of 26-27 March after an unknown perpetrator threw several bottles of incendiary mixture at the building.

"Since the night we have been dealing with an attack in which someone threw several bottles of incendiary mixture at the Russian House on Na Zatorce Street, Prague 6," police announced on Friday morning, as reported by Czech news outlet Novinky.

The unknown perpetrator fled the scene. "We are searching for the perpetrator, whom we suspect of criminal damage to property," police added.

The Russian House (Russian Centre of Science and Culture) is managed by the Russian state agency Rossotrudnichestvo, the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation, which was added to the European sanctions list in 2022, following the start of the war against Ukraine, for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda.

Over the past few years, the Prague centre's activities have expanded beyond their cultural guise to the systematic promotion of pro-Kremlin narratives and political views.

According to findings by investigatecace.cz, the centre also translated a number of leaflets spreading false information about the war in Ukraine.

In August last year, a Prague court acquitted seven activists whom authorities had sought to prosecute for drawing a Ukrainian flag in front of the so-called "Russian houses" – the Russian embassy's residential complex in Czechia.

The actions were initially classified as criminal damage to property, for which the seven individuals faced up to three years in prison. The prosecution ultimately proposed a fine of CZK 30,000 crowns (approximately US$1,408).