Admirers of Putin

In its "Grumpy Uncle Vaclav" article last week, The Economist said rather unfairly that Václav Klaus is an admirer of Vladimir Putin. It apparently based this on his contrarian view on Georgia, although history is already showing that Klaus's take on the Aug. conflict was one of the more objective ones. In contrast, The Economist portrayed Mirek Topolánek as being standoffish toward Russia, esp. with regard to the need for energy independence. The magazine failed, though, to look at what Topolánek's buddies at ČEZ are doing to make the CR more dependent on Russia for nuclear power. Topolánek also borrowed a line from Putin by lashing out at corruption in a speech at the ODS congress. But, like Putin, Topolánek will no doubt continue to send the opposite signal about corruption through his actions. It could easily be argued that Topolánek has as much in common with Putin as Klaus does. [Czech Republic war]