CEZ_How Russia is Rebuilding Influence in the Former Soviet Bloc

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September 25, 2010

Czech Power Games: How Russia Is

Rebuilding Influence In The Former Soviet

Blocby Gregory Feifer, Brian WhitmoreOne man's signature was all it would take to end eight years of tortuous negotiations andcontentious national referenda. That effort had finally yielded the Lisbon Treaty, a newagreement among members of the European Union that would provide the community with itsfirst constitution and president. The final hurdle was securing that one politician's signature, butEuropean leaders were growing frantic last October because he wasn't answering histelephone.

Instead Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, had embarked on an international tour to promotehis new book, "Blue Planet in Green Shackles," an anti-global-warming manifesto in whichKlaus -- who has denounced Al Gore as an "apostle of arrogance" -- dismisses manmadeclimate change as a myth.

Klaus's main destination was Moscow, where LUKoil, the giant Russian oil company, waspaying for the book's translation. Speaking in the Kremlin, the Czech leader, his white hairclosely cropped and mustache fastidiously trimmed, condemned the EU -- which he oncecompared to the Soviet Union -- as elitist and undemocratic.

It was an extraordinary state of affairs: a tiny new EU member impeding, if not quite derailing, ahistoric community development. Klaus eventually signed the Lisbon Treaty, but only after hisprotracted opposition had frayed the EU's already fragile unity. Critics of Europe's rudestpolitician, as he's been described, accused him of hijacking the treaty in order to steal thelimelight.

Although most Czechs say their president genuinely believes in his anti-European tirades,many were dismayed. But Klaus's trip to Moscow raised eyebrows for another reason: to manyobservers, he appeared to be acting in the interests of the Kremlin, and not for the first time.

In the 1990s, Klaus promoted Czech oil and gas agreements with Russia before opposing adeal to buy gas from Norway as "economically unviable." (When Moscow cut off suppliesflowing through Ukraine in 2006 and 2009, the deal helped enable the Czech Republic to avoidmajor energy crises.) In 1999, he joined the Kremlin's angry condemnation of NATO's bombingof Yugoslavia over Kosovo. A decade later as president, he appeared to back Russia'sinvasion of Georgia by declaring that the responsibility of Moscow's former Soviet neighborwas "unexceptionable and fatal."

A trained economist, Klaus has served as prime minister or president during most of theCzech Republic's postcommunist history. The staunch free-marketeer -- who keeps aphotograph of Margaret Thatcher prominently displayed in his office -- oversaw the transitionof a centrally planned economy into one of the former Soviet bloc's most successful marketsbefore emerging as a leading voice of the country's right wing. So you'd be forgiven for thinkingit somewhat of a paradox that he's come out on Moscow's side on almost every major issue.

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Klaus's resistance to signing the Lisbon Treaty, despite being obligated to do so by Czech law,put him in step with the Kremlin yet again, this time over one of Moscow's biggest foreign-policygoals: splitting European unity. Klaus has backed Moscow so consistently over the years thatjokes in Prague about his being a Russian agent prompt chuckles tinged with more than a littlenervousness.

Journalist Jaroslav Plesl, who has investigated Russian influence in the Czech Republic,believes it doesn't matter whether the gossip contains any truth. "You don't need to see anydocuments, even if they exist," he says. "The Russians want the European Union to be asweak as possible, and for that purpose, Klaus serves their interests well."

But there are worries that Klaus, who refused requests for an interview, is just the tip of theiceberg. A growing number of Czech politicians across the spectrum appear to have ties toRussia in one or another form, and it's setting off alarm bells. Twenty years after the end ofcommunism -- and four decades after the Red Army crushed the Prague Spring in 1968 -- afew lonely voices are warning that the Czech Republic and its neighbors are in danger of fallingunder Moscow's influence once again. This time, they say, the threat isn't from Russia's tanksbut the one business in which Russia leads the world: energy.

That was the message from a group of prominent Central and Eastern European politicians ledby former President Vaclav Havel, Klaus's predecessor and nemesis, who published an openletter to President Barack Obama last summer. The West, they wrote, should abandon itsmistaken belief that the end of the Cold War and the expansion of the EU and NATO into theformer Soviet bloc guaranteed their countries were "safe."

Criticism that Washington may be abandoning allies in Central and Eastern Europe in favor of"resetting" relations with Moscow is growing ever louder. But some believe it's distracting fromthe real threat in this part of the world. A handful of politicians, journalists, and formerintelligence officers say rampant corruption is making Czechs vulnerable to exploitation by aresurgent Russia with ready cash to help fulfill its burning desire to reestablish its influenceover former Soviet bloc countries.

Unlike Western firms, which lobby largely in their own interests, Russian state-controlled andprivate enterprises play an integral role in Kremlin foreign policy, and they're "undoubtedlyinfluencing the behavior of various Czech political parties and politicians," Havel said in aninterview. "I've seen several cases where the influence started quietly and slowly beganprojecting onto our foreign policy. I can only advise serious discretion and great caution."

As one objective in a grand strategy, the Czech Republic sheds light on just how Moscowworks. It's no secret Russia is the world's biggest exporter of oil and gas, especially to Centraland Eastern European countries, some of which depend on Russia for around 90 percent oftheir supplies. But in the Czech Republic, Moscow is playing for an industry that's beenpromoted as central to securing the country's energy independence: nuclear power. A Russiancompany is bidding for the biggest nuclear energy deal in history, and many believe it will win.

WATCH: Russians in Karlovy Vary

Spy Game

Klaus's offices are in Prague's storied castle, a dark medieval hulk that looms over a Baroquecity of spires. Despite its architectural charms, however, outside the center, much of Pragueremains gritty, a city still emerging from its communist past. But some neighborhoods stand out.Near the castle hill above the curving Vltava River, a collection of villas lines the leafy streetsof one of Prague's toniest quarters. It's here that many of the city's wealthy Russians havesettled.


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To those Russians, Prague is a more affordable version of London: an urban asylum that'ssafer and more civilized than teeming, lawless Moscow, and a convenient few hours' flightaway. Russian law firms, food stores and hairdressers serve not only the rich, but a growingnumber of their middle-class compatriots. The neighborhood is also home to the RussianEmbassy, which occupies a sprawling palace and includes a Russian Orthodox church, and,according to Czech intelligence, provides a place for at least 60 Russian intelligence officersand agents, or a third of the Russian diplomatic community, from which to operate.

Last year, the government expelled two Russian diplomats suspected of spying. Many Czechsbelieve they'd taken part in a large-scale Russian effort to rally public opinion against theconstruction of a radar base that was to be part of the U.S. missile defense shield. But Czechmedia later reported the Russians were probably conducting industrial espionage. In a reportissued in June, the Czech counterintelligence service warned that Russian espionage was"aggressive" and escalating, especially in the energy business.

That development worries Karel Randak, the soft-spoken former head of the Czechintelligence service whose close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair gives him the appearance moreof a scholar than spy. But espionage is only part of the way Moscow is seeking to expand itsinfluence here. Although Randak insists most Russian businessmen behave no differently fromtheir Western counterparts, he says some of the biggest Russian companies operate bystealth, through a dizzying web of shell companies nominally owned and operated by Czechsbut actually controlled by Moscow.

Among them, a gas-trading company named Vemex has taken 12 percent of the Czechdomestic market since its establishment in 2001 to sell Russian natural gas. Although there'snothing on Vemex's website to indicate it, the company is Czech in name only. It's actuallycontrolled by Gazprom through a series of companies based in Switzerland, Germany, andAustria, including Centrex Europe Energy and Gas, which has helped spearhead the Russiandrive to buy energy assets across Europe.

Centrex is registered in Austria, and, according to Gazprom's website, founded by its ownGazprombank. But the company's real ownership is impossible to trace. According to theEuropean Commission, Centrex is owned by Centrex Group Holding Ltd., registered in Cyprus,a company controlled by Gazprom's German subsidiary, and RN Privatsiftung, a Viennafoundation whose stockholders are unknown.

Why go to the trouble of hiding the real owners of companies either already known or believedto be controlled by Gazprom? Vemex is just one of a large number of enterprises Gazpromhas set up in countries across Central and Eastern Europe to muscle into the Europeanenergy-utilities business. By disguising the real owners, Gazprom makes its actions morepalatable to Europeans wary of expanding Russian influence.

Randak, who began his intelligence career tracking Russian criminal groups in the 1990s,says the Russians first gained control over organized crime in the Czech Republic from theItalian Mafia around 1992. Beginning with "normal criminal activities," mainly racketeering, theybranched into white-collar crime in the mid-1990s. "They hired lawyers and established localcompanies with Czech board members," Randak says. "Now they're involved in 'real business'because they have real money." And they're controlled by, or work with, the Russiangovernment. "This is the real danger coming from Russia."

WATCH: Interview with former Czech intelligence head Karel Randak

The character Victor Laszlo, the fugitive Czech resistance leader in the film "Casablanca,"may represent the most common image of the country in the West: rigid, pure, and dedicated,


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fighting against the victimization of a foreign oppressor. As always, the reality is morecomplicated. Journalist Jaroslav Plesl, who's one of the country's leading politicalcommentators, blames his own countrymen for their scant concern about the danger fromMoscow. "They're willing to sell anything," he says. "If you want to influence politics here, youneed to do business with only a very few people, and you can pretty much control the country."

"That's something the Russians have been able to exploit," Plesl says. "Just look at KarlovyVary."

Nowhere is the Russian presence more visible than in the storied spa town in the hilly west ofthe country that's a popular vacation destination for Russians. Many of the town's buildingsbelong to Russians, including the grand Imperial Hotel, owned by a Russian-born businessmanwho got his start in the region overseeing Soviet uranium mining in the 1970s and where Klausoften stays. "Russians can do whatever they want without permission," Plesl says, "and if theydo need approval for something, they'll bribe city hall to get it." During a low ebb in relations,Czechs joked the Kremlin once warned it would bomb Prague if the government wasn't careful."If you're not careful," the Czech prime minister replied, "we'll bomb Karlovy Vary."

Lobbying Efforts

With some 50 of its filling stations dotting the countryside, LUKoil is Russia's most public facein the Czech Republic. Last year, the company also secured a contract to supply 20 percent ofthe jet fuel used at Prague's International Airport. No other companies bid for the deal, despitea pledge by then-Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek -- a bitter opponent of Klaus's who's raisedserious concerns about the danger of Russian control over Czech strategic companies -- todiversify his country's energy supplies.

That may be because LUKoil has serious pull. According to the Czech media, the company'sCEO Vagit Alekperov -- who enjoys close ties to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- twicesecretly met Klaus in the Prague Castle. One of the meetings is reported to have taken placein November 2008, around the time LUKoil announced it would expand its business in theCzech Republic, prompting rumors of a backroom deal. When asked by journalists about themeetings, Klaus reacted angrily, but didn't deny they took place.

The government's decision to award the contract to LUKoil helped reverse a drive to free thecountry from dependence on Russian oil, the only source until a pipeline from Germany begandelivering supplies in 1995 -- against Klaus's wishes. That channel now provides some 20percent of the country's oil, but according to Jaroslav Spurny -- one of the country's mostprominent investigative journalists, who writes for the magazine "Respekt" -- LUKoil now wantsto take control of the pipeline and reverse the flow so that Russian supplies would be sent westthrough the Czech Republic. "That would make us fully dependent on Russian oil again,"Spurny says, "which would mean a kind of dictatorship."

LUKoil and other Russian companies contacted for this article declined to provide interviews.But Russian Chamber of Commerce representative Sergei Mikoyan says LUKoil, like anycompany, is naturally seeking to expand its business for its own interests. "Why should Russiaexcuse itself for having enough money to buy property abroad?" he asks, adding that chargesof a grand Kremlin plan to snap up European energy assets can be made only by people who"simply don't like Russia. No matter what Russia does, they'll always find skeletons in thecloset."

Mikoyan says the Czech government can easily rule any company operating in the countryoff-limits on the grounds of strategic importance, otherwise "say openly they're for sale, but notto the Russians, which would be unfair and not part of free enterprise."

Whatever its motives, LUKoil is cultivating ties with a number of politicians in addition to Klaus.Among them is a popular former prime minister named Milos Zeman, who recently left the


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Social Democratic Party to start his own left-wing Citizens' Rights Party. While denyingallegations that it is financed by LUKoil, the party admits taking money from Russian-connected lobbyists. Chief among them is Miroslav Slouf, a former communist youth leaderwhose Slavia Consulting company brokered the LUKoil deal to supply Prague's airport. Slouf,who is known to be LUKoil's main promoter in the Czech Republic, also happens to beZeman's right-hand man.

Zeman denies he benefits from Russian money. At his party headquarters in central Prague,the blunt, hard-drinking, old-school pol -- who many believe hopes to succeed Klaus aspresident in 2013 -- bridled in response to a question about the influence of lobbyists such asSlouf. "Let me give you a lesson in political science," he says. "They're engaged in arespectable job." Besides, "we haven't received a single penny from LUKoil."

Members of the country's small circle of pro-American politicians disagree, among themForeign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, a pipe-smoking Hapsburg prince. "There are verystrong lobbying groups here, very strong," he said in an interview shortly before he joined thecabinet in July. "A lot of Russian firms are under the influence of the state, especially in theenergy sector. And Russia is increasingly turning into an authoritarian state. There's always adanger that economic influence turns into political influence."

Former Green Party leader Martin Bursik, who also served as environment minister, is one ofthe loudest critics of the central role lobbyists play in Czech politics. He says it's opened thedoor for Moscow to reassert its influence by reactivating a network of communist-era officials."The kind of transparent, legal lobbying conducted by the U.S. president or secretary of statecan hardly compete," he says.

That's being made clear by jockeying over the nuclear energy deal some believe is soimportant it will influence the country's future development.

WATCH: Interview with Czech politician Martin Bursik

The CEZ Republic

In the region of South Bohemia, an hour south of Prague by car, picturesque but rundownvillages dot miles of flat, bucolic farmland. Until you approach the village of Temelin, where foursurreal-looking cooling towers loom over the land. They're part of a nuclear power plant soonto become the focus of the biggest business deal in Czech history. The state powerconglomerate that owns the plant, CEZ (pronounced "chess"), plans to build two new reactors,and possibly more elsewhere.

Started in the 1980s, construction on the Temelin plant was interrupted by the fall ofcommunism. Westinghouse later completed the project, but last year CEZ discharged theU.S.-based company as supplier of nuclear fuel in favor of a Russian state-controlled firm.

Temelin and a second, larger nuclear power plant currently produce a third of Czech electricity.Although coal provides the biggest share of Czech energy, about 60 percent, the governmentplans to shut down the oldest, most polluting plants over the next decade. Temelin's newreactors are expected to make up the difference, about 10 percent of the country's energy.

Critics are worried about how the expansion plans will be handled, partly because CEZ isn't justany power company. It's the largest utility and biggest public company in Central and EasternEurope, with a net profit last year five times that of the four biggest Czech banks combined.CEZ finances the two largest political parties and is so central to politics and business, oneobserver calls the Czech Republic an "electrostate." Others have dubbed it the "CEZRepublic."


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CEZ, which is 70 percent state-owned, also illustrates the deep murkiness of Czech politics. InMay, the Green Party publicly called on the company to reveal its ownership structure, allegingthe firm stands at the center of "a network of loyalties and linkages in a nontransparentenvironment. That network includes courts, police, prosecutors, regional governments, andpolitical parties." The Greens are concerned that internal CEZ corruption will affect theoutcome of the Temelin tender.

A spokesman for the Temelin plant says the new reactors will be key to maintaining thecountry's "energy independence." But given that rationale, it may come as a surprise that aRussian state-controlled company, Atomstroieksport, is not only among just three bidders, butby many accounts ranks at the top of the list. Competing against Atomstroieksport areWestinghouse (the U.S. company was bought by Japan's Toshiba in 2007) and France'sAreva. The firms will submit their offers this fall. The contract, worth between $15 billion and$30 billion, will be awarded next year, and the new reactors are expected to begin operation by2020.

CEZ says all three bidders are well qualified, and that the main consideration should be price.Others say the deal isn't about money. "It's a civilization choice," says Vaclav Bartuska, theCzech Republic's foreign envoy for energy-security issues. "I want my country to be tied toFrance or the U.S.," he explains. "I'm not lobbying for Areva or Westinghouse, just against theRussians."

When CEZ announced the Temelin tender last year, the government said it was up to thecompany to decide who wins. But Bartuska succeeded in a single-handed campaign to makethe choice political: now the government will have the final say. It's been a lonely battle.Bartuska, a dissident student leader under communism, is the only high-ranking governmentofficial to warn about the threat from Russian influence, for which he was criticized by even hisown government for being "too pro-Western."

'Exporting Corruption'

The smiling former journalist -- who spoke in his airy office in a sprawling 17th-century palacethat houses the Foreign Ministry -- says the difference between Russian and Westerncompanies is the code by which they function. "Russian companies export corruption," hesays.

Bartuska points to a deal last year to build a new storage facility at Temelin for spent nuclearfuel. The sole bid submitted for the $80 million contract was from a company so shady that it'sunder investigation by the government. CEEI is believed to be Russian-controlled, but itsownership remains unknown. The trail stops at a Liechtenstein-based firm called U.B.I.E.,where former Liechtenstein Prime Minister Markus Buechel is a director. He's also Russia'shonorary consul to Liechtenstein.

Buechel has said even he doesn't know who ultimately owns CEEI. According to aPrague-based business newsletter called the "Fleet Sheet," however, he's asked what wouldbe wrong if the owner did turn out to be Russian. The newsletter also reported CEEI boardmember Vladimir Hlavinka, a CEZ executive, as dismissing concerns over CEEI. The country'spublic-procurement law bars investigating bidders' ownership, he said, because that wouldamount to "discrimination."

Critics of the CEEI deal say Germany recently built an almost identical storage facility for halfthe price. "Fleet Sheet's" American publisher, Erik Best, characterizes CEZ's actions asevidence of what he calls the "privatization of state authority," when state companies makedecisions in the interests of their own executives instead of the state. Best says public projectsin the Czech Republic are usually overpriced, undertaken less for the sake of improvinginfrastructure than the sums officials are able to skim from the contracts. He questions why


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Temelin's new storage facility was commissioned.

"Was the real reason simply that they could build it, because that's 1.5 or 2 billion crowns [$70million or $100 million]? That means someone got 1.5 or 2 billion crowns, and of course thereare the rumors [CEEI] is ultimately owned by Russians," Best says.

Temelin's spokesman has denied allegations of wrongdoing, saying the storage facility wasnecessary and long-planned. But energy envoy Bartuska agrees the questions surroundingCEEI are cause for serious concern about how CEZ will handle the upcoming reactor tender.Not least because one of CEEI's directors is in jail for trying to kidnap another, who happens tobe Klaus's former chief of staff, in an alleged extortion attempt. Bartuska says that reminds himof incidents in countries such as Nigeria and "not how I want to see my own country."

WATCH: The Temelin nuclear power plant -- a key battleground in energy security

Nuclear Politics

Bartuska believes the decision over the Temelin tender will affect much more than the nuclearindustry alone. "Putin will be bidding not just for two reactors," he says, "but for [influence over]the entire Czech Republic." Jiri Kominek, an analyst who writes for the Jamestown Foundation,says Moscow is already putting "unprecedented" lobbying pressure on the Czech government,and expects it to be successful.

Some opinion makers, including the editorial board of the "Hospodarske noviny" businessnewspaper -- where Plesl is a columnist -- are calling for banning Atomstroieksport from evenparticipating in the tender. But that proposal is facing an uphill battle not least because theRussian company is expected to submit the lowest offer by far.

Sergei Mikoyan of the Russian Chamber of Commerce dismisses the criticism that the state-controlled company would pose a threat to Czech national security. "On the contrary," he says,"the state's backing of Atomstroieksport is good because the Russian government canguarantee the project's security."

For its part, Atomstroieksport has played down its connection to the Russian state, publicizingits bid by promising to subcontract up to 70 percent of the construction work on Temelin toCzech companies. The main beneficiary would be a nuclear-engineering firm called Skoda JS(separate from the eponymous car company, which is owned by Volkswagen). Last year,Atomstroieksport and Skoda JS formed a consortium to enter a joint bid, something Skoda JSdirector Miroslav Fiala says shows it's "not really a Russian offer, but from a consortium led bySkoda JS."

But there's a catch. Although Skoda JS's Czech managers may represent its public face, thecompany is really Russian-owned, after its recent sale to the state-controlled industrialconglomerate OMZ. Pressed on that point, Fiala admits the Skoda JS-Atomstroieksport bidactually "represents Russian national capital." But he adds, "we're simply offering CEZ acompetitive and safe project that will open great opportunities for Czech industry."

"Fleet Sheet" publisher Best isn't convinced. "Skoda JS's sale to OMZ is a much bigger matterthan anyone is willing to admit," he says. For one thing, the Czech company's ownership of theplant's designs "gives the Russians access to Westinghouse's commercial secrets."

"They've just been simply better prepared than the French or the Americans," Best says of theRussians. "They've been more active coming in and setting up agreements with local suppliers.In that sense, they've done a better job than the Americans."


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Vice President Joe Biden lobbied for Westinghouse's bid when he visited Prague last winter.But Defense Minister Alexandr Vondra, who's among the most pro-American members of thepolitical establishment, criticizes Washington for doing too little. In an interview before hisrecent appointment to the government, he rejected concerns the Temelin bid wouldautomatically go the Russians, but "a more energetic approach [from Westinghouse] wouldcertainly be appreciated."

Not A Done Deal

When Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in 2006 in what looked very much likepunishment for Kyiv's pro-Western policies, there was little doubt Moscow was using energy asa foreign-policy tool. European countries, whose supplies were also disrupted, vowed todiversify their supplies by looking to other sources and developing renewable energy. ButEurope still depends on Russia for a quarter of its gas, and that figure is only set to grow.

Those who believe Russian companies act differently than their Western counterparts seepatterns in the Kremlin's drive to broaden control over Europe's energy infrastructure.Moscow's success in the past several years has been dramatic. Germany, Italy, and Hungaryare among the countries to have joined projects to build two major new gas pipelines fromRussia that would deepen Europe's dependence on Moscow. Earlier this year, Austria becamethe seventh country to sign on to Moscow's South Stream pipeline, which is planned to deliversupplies from Central Asia.

Some believe Washington has fallen asleep at the wheel. "The U.S. never expected theRussian offensive would be so strong," Plesl says. But he sees signs the United States hasstarted mapping the "damage" caused by the Russians, and "I think they're horrified."

The U.S. Embassy in Prague and officials in Washington turned down requests for interviews.Some say it's ironic that a U.S. administration undertaking a historic drive to instituteregulations at home isn't doing more to criticize the breakdown of rule of law among allies likethe Czech Republic. "I don't think they care a bloody damn about us," Schwarzenberg, nowforeign minister, said last spring. "We're just a very small country somewhere in CentralEurope. Why should they care?"

Following parliamentary elections in May, Schwarzenberg's TOP 09 party joined a newcenter-right coalition government that will decide the Temelin tender next year. The newgovernment is led by the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which has called for lesseningdependence on Russia and fighting corruption, a top issue for many who support the newgovernment. But Karel Randak, the former intelligence chief, says he's not optimistic becausethe previous center-right government -- also led by the ODS until it collapsed last year --oversaw a rise in corruption.

Questioned about the advantages corruption gives Moscow, Czech politicians routinely sayEU membership guarantees their country independence. "I don't think ordinary investmentsfrom Russia, the United States, Italy, China, Japan, Brazil, Germany, France, or anywhere elseare a threat to our national independence," says Jiri Paroubek, a former prime minister andSocial Democrat leader who was seen as especially sympathetic to Moscow.

But critics such as former Green Party leader Bursik warn that Moscow's activities in theCzech Republic have shown that any belief that membership in international organizationssuch as the EU is enough to ensure the rule of law is naive. Moreover, the actions of Klaus --who founded the ODS -- like those of other Czech leaders, have contributed decisively to theEU's failure to mount a unified defense of its collective interests. That's essentially enabledRussia to dictate the rules of the energy game by making deals with individual countries'energy companies. "It's still a power game over who has influence within the Czech Republic,"Bursik says. "It's still a battle between NATO and Russia."


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Although President Klaus has no formal say over Temelin's future, he's endorsedAtomstroieksport's bid. Klaus's critics contend that's part and parcel of his support forMoscow's position on virtually every foreign-policy issue. But energy envoy Bartuska doesn'tbelieve Klaus is actually working for the Russians. "He loves to be alone against the flow, onclimate change and many other things," he says. It's no secret that Klaus's recalcitrance issomething Moscow has exploited.

Bartuska, who's met Putin and Medvedev in the Kremlin, also says he knows how seductive agrand Kremlin reception can be. "When they give you the treatment, oh my! Suddenly you feelyou're someone. Klaus can't even get a meeting in Washington. Where would you go?" Still,the real threat to Czechs, Bartuska says, doesn't come from Moscow "but from ourselves."The Czech Republic made a "huge leap" toward the West after 1989, he says, but "suddenlybecame dissatisfied, started looking around and saying, 'So this is it?'"

Still, Bartuska says the game isn't up yet. Although he lost the fight to exclude Atomstroieksportfrom the Temelin tender, last June the government appointed him to oversee the process, asign he says "speaks for itself."

"Now we're on a threshold. Either we can go the way of Ukraine, a phony democracy with afew people who are rich. Or we can go back and try to be a normal boring European country inwhich law is law."

"But it's not a done deal," he adds. "We have to decide for ourselves what kind of country wewant to live in."Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty © 2012 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.rferl.org/content/Czech_Mate_How_Russia_Is_Rebuilding_Influence_In_The_Former_Soviet_Bloc/2168090.html


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