With two large portraits of Alexei Navalny on the wall behind the Soviet hero monument in the center of Vienna, the Schwarzenberg family has been referring since Tuesday to the Russian politician, who died in a prison camp in February. “The monument (from 1945, note) commemorates the victims of the dictatorship and Mr Navalny is a clear victim of the dictatorship,” said Maximillian Schaffgotsch of the Fürstlich Schwarzenberg Family Foundation.
The foundation board member said the suggestion came about in a discussion group with NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger, journalist Hans Rauscher and the head of the Schwarzenberg family, Johannes Schwarzenberg. Navalny’s depictions are certainly in the spirit of the recently deceased family head Karel Schwarzenberg, who, unlike many others, was not wrong in his assessment of the current Russian ruler, Schaffgotsch emphasized.
Mauer belongs to the family palace
Already in 2022, the former Czech Foreign Minister, together with his son Johannes, had ensured that the wall of the family palace on the edge of Schwarzenbergplatz was colored blue as an expression of solidarity with Ukraine and as a reminder of the participation of Ukrainians in the liberation of Vienna in 1945. was painted yellow.
Against this background, the Austrian graffiti artist duo Joel Gamnou has sprayed two portraits of the Russian opposition leader on behalf of the foundation, each based on media templates: Behind the columns of the Soviet Heroes Monument there is now a subject with Navalny, which shows him in a suit and tie during a historic court hearing almost ten years ago, as well as a well-known motif of the politician with hands in the shape of a heart.
Criticism of the Schwarzenberg initiative came on Wednesday from the “Coordinating Council of the Organization of Russian Compatriots” in Austria (KSORS), which is close to the Russian embassy: “This (the Navalny portraits, please note) not only insults the memory of the Soviet Union fighters, but also a cynical disregard for the lessons of history about the terrible consequences of fascism,” the loose umbrella group wrote on Facebook. There was also talk of continued “malicious use of the wall behind the Soviet Heroes Monument” for “political purposes.”
Navalny monument repeatedly destroyed
After a makeshift Navalny monument opposite the Russian embassy in Vienna was destroyed for the second time this weekend, activists from the “Russians against War” initiative have again brought flowers to Vienna’s Reisnerstrasse in recent days and also mounted posters on a construction fence. . In Russian you can read something like “Hello, it’s Navalny (again”). However, the current monument is much more modest than its predecessors.
The Vienna public prosecutor’s office has now dealt with the repeated removal of the monument. “The incidents on March 16 and 23 were investigated and established by the State Office for State Security and Combating Extremism,” a spokeswoman for the Vienna State Police Directorate said. The results of the investigation have been reported in the form of a report to the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office, which will now investigate whether the established facts are criminally relevant and whether an investigation will be initiated.
Source: Krone
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