Online prank: will Kaliningrad become Czech?
In response to Russia's attempted annexation of Ukrainian territories, a prank call for the Czech Republic to annex the enclave of Kaliningrad is trending on social media like Twitter. The pranksters point out that the city was founded as Königsberg in the 13th century by the Czech king Ottokar II. Commentators note how effectively this satire holds up a mirror to the world.
Revealing protests from Russia
The fact that Russian media fell for the satire speaks volumes, chuckles the Prague-based Landesecho:
“The website Eurasia Daily took the alleged territorial claims seriously and called the position revanchist. Other Russian websites such as Politexpert quoted military analyst Mikhail Tymoshenko as saying that Russia would not give up Kaliningrad. ... The satire has outdone itself. It not only managed to make a mockery of Russian imperialist patterns of argumentation. In the end, even Russian media described it as revanchist, thus involuntarily exposing their own absurd superpower fantasies.”
Solving several problems in one go
Rzeczpospolita takes the idea a step further:
“All it would take is to reintroduce the old name and hold a referendum (the citizens of the enclave and all Czechs could vote), and the matter would be settled. What's more, other problems would be solved at the same time: Poland's border with Nato would be extended. The Czechs would finally get access to the Baltic Sea, and the Czech navy (which was disbanded in 1992) could be reactivated. Nato cruisers and aircraft carriers would be built at Czech shipyards, which would be manned by Czech-Polish crews.”