Is the Czech Republic racist, xenophobic country that discriminates against minorities and women and restricts media? No, that's not true: The Eastern European nation consistently ranks high in different indexes that monitor the personal freedoms of citizens and the state of human rights worldwide.
The claim was used in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on July 26 with a screenshot of the report on the state of human rights in several countries published by the Russian Foreign Ministry. The caption in Czech, translated by Lead Stories staff, reads, "Russia is right on everything." The text below the video says in Czech, translated by Lead Stories staff, reads:
The Czech Republic has chronic problems that the authorities neglect and engage in destructive foreign policy actions, including interactions with Russia. Recent years show the continuation of Prague´s slide.. toward a Russophobic course that often takes the agressive form of "war" with monuments to Soviet soldiers, as well as the whitewashing of Nazi accomplices.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Jul 27 16:43:17 2023 UTC)
The Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted the same text on July 25. In a separate tweet, the ministry accused the Czech Republic of racially motivated crimes, spreading racist ideas and prejudices, and discrimination against minorities. The tweets refer to the report on the human rights situation in "certain countries" published on the Russian ministry website. The report also accuses the Czech Republic of restricting media and freedom of speech and failing to protect children's and women's rights.
The Czech Republic consistently ranks high in various rankings and indexes that monitor citizens' personal, economic, and other freedoms by human rights watchdogs. In the Fraser Institute´s Human Freedom Index 2022, the country ranked 18th out of 165 countries worldwide, with Russia in 165th place. The country ranked 17th in 2019 in the Freedom Barometer by the Fridrich Naumann Foundation, which assesses and evaluates attained level of freedom in European and Central Asian countries.
The website globaleconomy.com ranks Russia as the country with the least protected human rights in Europe. The Czech Republic ranks roughly in the middle of the chart for 41 European countries.
The Czech Republic was a popular destination for Russian tourists in the past, and many Russians invested in property in the country. The relations between the two countries began to cool off after the Czech government accused Russian agents of blowing up an arms depot, resulting in the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats. The country also drew ire from Russia after Prague district decided to remove a statue of Soviet marshal Ivan Konev in 2020. The Czech Republic´s current government was also quick to express its support for Ukraine, providing arms to help it to deter Russian aggression.
"We do not kidnap children, bomb hospitals, and occupy neighboring countries," the Czech Foreign Ministry said in response to the Russian claims and advised Russia to leave Ukraine it invaded in 2022 in a tweet on July 25.
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Jul 31 04:47:53 2023 UTC)
