Embassy of Russia in Prague
| Embassy of the Russian Federation in Prague Посольство Российской Федерации в Праге Velvyslanectví Ruské Federace v Praze |
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| Coordinates | 50°6′13.53″N 14°24′50.9″E / 50.1037583°N 14.414139°ECoordinates: 50°6′13.53″N 14°24′50.9″E / 50.1037583°N 14.414139°E |
| Location | Prague |
| Address | nám. Pod kaštany 1 |
| Ambassador | Sergey Borisovich KISELEV |
The Embassy of Russia in Prague is the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic. The chancery is located at nám. Pod kaštany 1 in the Bubeneč neighbourhood of Prague 6 district in Prague.
The building which is now the embassy chancery was bought by Jiří Popper, a Czech banker in 1927.Edvard Beneš, the then President of Czechoslovakia in exile and Jiří Popper, both of whom knew each other, fled to London on the same aircraft in 1938.
The Bubeneč Popper house and surrounding land was confiscated by the Nazi authorities on 16 March 1939, a day after their occupation of Czechoslovakia, and was subsequently used as the Prague headquarters of the Gestapo. It was in this period of time that the embassy was fitted with a series of underground tunnels which housed Gestapo archives as well as a security hallway connecting the tunnels to the embassy. In 1945, after the end of the war, the family attempted to reclaim the property, but were prevented from doing so due to the nationalisation decrees of Beneš, who returned to Czechoslovakia as President. Although Beneš was aware that the Czech–Jewish banker was still alive and intended to return to Prague, the property was granted to the Soviet Union by Beneš as a gift in thanks for the Soviet liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi rule. The building was used by the Soviets to accommodate the embassy of the Soviet Union to Czechoslovakia. Following this shift in ownership, the Soviets worked to integrate the tunnels and secure rooms which were added by the Nazi government. It is a widely held belief that many of these rooms were used by KGB Line X officers for means of espionage and counter intelligence.
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Wikipedia