Final Word from Monday, January 19, 2026

House Speaker Tomio Okamura of SPD cited the sensitive, but not classified, minutes yesterday on CNN Prima News of a meeting in Kyiv between the Czech and Ukrainian presidents, Petr Pavel and Volodymyr Zelensky, about the possible delivery of four L-159 aircraft to Ukraine. This outraged Vice Chair Michaela Šebelová of STAN, who said such information shouldn't be made public. "This just can't be," she said. Yet it has become a sort of epidemic. Deník N and Respekt revealed the subject of an unannounced meeting at the Castle in Dec. of Pres. Petr Pavel, U.S. Amb. Nicholas Merrick and U.S. Gen. Curtis Buzzard with Andrej Babiš on the day he was appointed PM. And then last week, Deník N cited the minutes of a meeting between Merrick and Foreign Min. Petr Macinka of the Motorists, at which Macinka reportedly said that Czech positions on Taiwan "will be determined by U.S. policy toward China." From what we have learned, the holes in this last case were at the Castle. One way to slow down the leaks is to classify the minutes of such meetings. Another is for everyone to be more open about who is shaping Czech foreign policy. [ Czech Republic ANO ambassador United States secret ]