Time now to point you in the direction of a new feature by Pete Baumgartner based on an interview by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Oleksandra Vagner:
No Occupancy: High Court Backs Czech Hotel Owner's Crimea Test For Russian Guests
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic -- Despite death threats, Tomas Krcmar says he doesn't regret denying rooms at his four-star Moravian hotel to Russians unless they acknowledge that Crimea belongs to Ukraine.
"I reacted emotionally to the annexation of Crimea," he told RFE/RL, in a reference to Russia's covert invasion and grab of Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula in 2014. "When I made my decision [to ban Russians who didn't disclaim the annexation], I certainly did not expect that such a wave would arise...and never in my worst nightmare did I think this would last five years. But I'm glad [the controversy] happened."
Within a few weeks of putting a sign on the door barring all Russians from his four-story Brioni Boutique Hotel in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava in 2014, he was fined 50,000 crowns (about $2,170) by the Czech Trade Inspectorate for violating antidiscrimination laws.
He fought the verdict and a regional court agreed, canceling the fine.
Read more here.
'Not My Flag, Not My Country': Leaving Annexed Crimea
It's estimated that tens of thousands of people have left Crimea for the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, since the 2014 annexation of the peninsula by Russia. (Current Time)
