A district of Prague has sparked a row with the Kremlin over plans for a memorial honouring Russian troops who broke ranks with the Soviet Union to collaborate with -- then fight against -- Nazi Germany during World War II.
Led by General Andrei Vlasov, who defected from the Red Army in 1942, the Russian Liberation Army turned on the Nazis toward the end of the war.
Known as Vlasov's army, the force of 23,000 troops fought alongside the Czech resistance in the 1945 Prague uprising that briefly liberated part of the city from Nazi German occupation before it was captured by the Soviets.
The Russian embassy in Prague on Monday lashed out at the planned memorial for Vlasov's army, saying that it had engaged in crimes tantamount "to war crimes committed by the Nazis".
But Pavel Novotny, the mayor of Prague's southwestern Reporyje district who proposed the memorial, on Wednesday vowed to push ahead with his plan in a letter addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It's not in your power to prevent us from building a memorial to 300 soldiers who died here fighting the Nazis," Novotny wrote.
"They (Vlasov's army) heard the Czech Radio calling for help on May 5 (1945) and... rushed to help Prague and they fought the Nazis for three days before the Red Army came," Novotny said, contacted by AFP.
Jiri Ovcacek, spokesman for pro-Russian Czech President Milos Zeman, tweeted support for the project on Wednesday saying "we can have a memorial to the Vlasov army".
A final decision on whether to build the memorial is expected next month.
In September, the Czech foreign minister summoned Russia's ambassador to end a dispute over a statue of Soviet General Ivan Konev which another Prague district voted to remove, to Russia's dismay.
Konev led the Red Army troops that took over Prague as the Nazis retreated in 1945. While he is regarded as a hero in Russia, many Czechs see him as a symbol of Soviet-era oppression.