The transnational furniture corporation IKEA demands to recover from the Belarusian activist Peter Markelov 8.5 thousand euros for the damage he caused during a protest action in one of the stores in the Czech Republic. The activist reported about it on his page in Instagram.
A Belarusian activist held a protest in an IKEA furniture store in Prague in November 2022. Markelov fenced off the furniture with duct tape, chopped up two nightstands with an axe (presumably made in Belarus), poured paint over them, and said over a loudspeaker in English that he was doing it as a protest against IKEA cooperation with the Belarusian authorities.
According to the person who filmed the action, Markelov specifically chose a moment when there were no children in the hall and then calmly waited for the police to arrive. He was held for six hours and then released.
The reason for the protest was an investigation by the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung together with the French investigators from Disclose, who published an article about the Swedish company's activities in Belarus. The material alleged that IKEA cooperated with Belarusian suppliers, who used the labor of prisoners, including political prisoners. The company stated that there was no evidence, but promised to investigate.