Prague - The Chamber of Deputies approved compensation for those who were forced to leave their homes in Carpathian Ruthenia after the Second World War.

The proposal has yet to be approved by the Senate. Financial compensation should be provided to those who left Carpathian Ruthenia in 1945 after it was seized by the Soviet Union.

"Compensation will be granted only to those applicants, who were citizens of Czechoslovakia till 29 June 1945 and whose property still physically existed on 30 January 1946," one of the authors of the proposal, Eva Dundáčková (ODS), said earlier.

The maximum compensation will be CZK 2 million. The measure should cost state coffers up to CZK 800 million.

Carpathian Ruthenia was separated from Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union on 29 June 1945. Its inhabitants who did not accept Russian citizenship had to leave the territory.

Several years later, the Czechoslovakian government agreed with Russia on compensation, which was, however, awarded only for personal property, not for real estates..