Final Word from Thursday, February 5, 2026

The Pavel Doctrine, as we formulated it in Jan. 2025, reads: "Stand up to evil, but if evil proves too powerful, make a deal with it." Petr Pavel often speaks in a Havel-like way about how we simply can't back down in the face of evil, as he did in Sept., when he said a violation of Nato airspace by Russian planes is reason to shoot them down. But when it comes to the reality on the ground in Ukraine, he now talks about compromises on both sides that would bring the fighting to an end, as he did in Kyiv on Jan. 16. His approach to domestic politics is the same. He made a deal about appointing Andrej Babiš as the PM, despite Babiš's criminal indictment and his conflict of interest, but he is absolutely adamant so far about standing up to evil in the lesser matter of appointing Filip Turek as the environment minister. The Pavel Doctrine is foremost an issue of power, not morality. Pavel knows that, at least for now, he holds the domestic power, just as he knows that Vladimir Putin holds it on the battlefield in Ukraine. [ Czech Republic Václav MP Motorists Moto airplanes Pres. ]