Czech President Petr Pavel clarified his statements about the security threat posed by Russian citizens in Europe and the need to closely monitor their activities.
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On Thursday, President Pavel said in an interview with Radio Liberty that Russian citizens living in Europe should be monitored by security forces.
This provoked an angry reaction from many Russian social media users, especially those who commented on the parallels that Pavel drew between the situation of Russians in the EU countries and the Japanese during World War II in the USA.
I can feel sorry for these people, but at the same time, if we look at history, at the time when the Second World War began, a close surveillance regime was also put on the entire Japanese population of the United States. It’s just the price of war,” Pavel said at the time.
After the outbreak of World War II, the US authorities interned about 125,000 ethnic Japanese living in the country, most of whom were American citizens.
Pavel’s spokeswoman clarified that the comparison with the Japanese population of the United States “was made in the context that restrictive measures against citizens of hostile countries are not a new phenomenon and in the past they were also introduced, although more severely.”
The Czech president did not say that such measures should be repeated now and did not mean “internment or other persecution,” she added.
On Sunday Paul explained the words. On the air of the CNN Prima News channel, the president clarified that he did not offer the special services to follow every Russian. At the same time, the authorities, according to the Czech president, should monitor developments in Russian society in order to respond to potential risks.
Pavel repeated that Russia was waging an aggressive war and “openly denies the validity of international rules and law.” He reminded viewers of the 2014 bombings at a Czech arms depot, a covert operation Prague says was carried out by agents of the Russian GRU.
This country calls us its adversary. Because of its first persons, it threatens other countries with military strikes, including with the use of nuclear weapons. This country committed a terrorist act in our state. For all these reasons, we must be wary of Russian citizens living on our territory, Pavel noted.
Source: Racurs
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