Russian Cheka Hard at Work

Nosemonkey linked to this New York Times as a story about how difficult it has been for former Soviet Bloc countries to be rid of the old communists. It says, that the Czech Republic and East German were most successful with their purges.

Hmmm, may be.

Chekists are now in control of Russia and their tentacles are spreading through-out the former Soviet Union and into the former western marches, one of which is here in the Czech Republic. The Chekists have been hard at work reforging links with their former comrades to cause mischieve hither and thither.

Prague is a small place. It does't take long for word to get around. So, I could name the names of people and businesses that have links to the Chekists. It also becomes known which Czech politicians cavort with the Chekists and the shady Russian military. Politicians have been known to accept their hospitality. I wonder how much a night with a prostitute buys from a politician?

When you hear the word "Russian" in Prague and you think of prostitution, drug trafficking, money laundering, contract killings and disappeared people. Russia is a nasty place that is exporting its nastiness to the rest of the world.

I just wish the CIA were as active in the Czech Republic as the Chekists are.

Winter has arrived

I went out to get some bread this morning. The air was cold, really cold. The last few weeks of unseasonally warm whether has ended. Winter has arrived. Soon, there will be snow and ice.

Indoors,though, everyone will be sweating. Czechs like their shops, flats and offices hot. Hot means that shop assistants are trotting around in t-shirts whereas you will be perspiring in your overcoat.

To keep buildings at that sort of temperature is expensive. There is a theory that Czechs got used to this under communism when Russians supplied them with subsidised gas. As a result a lot of energy is wasted.

People of Whom We Know Nothing

"A quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing." That was how Neville Chamberlain, a British Prime Minister, justified handing swathes of a country that was then called "Czechoslovakia" over to Nazi Germany.

I am sitting in the Czech Republic, a part of that country. For most it is still a faraway country that they know little about.

The Czech Republic is part of the "Other" Europe, the Europe that the west forgot. This Other Europe is the Europe that suffered under the Russian-Soviet Empire. The Other Europe didn't experience the social movements of the 20th century. Hippies, beatniks , punk rock, feminism, sexual liberation, the New Romantics, disco, acid house, Thatcherism, monetarism, stagflation, conglomerates, restructuring, Gordon Gecko, junk bonds, Woodstock, package holidays and nuclear disarmament movements just didn't happen here.

When those from the West swagger in, speaking of such things, those in the Other Europe, may be insulted, or perplexed, sometimes they're bemused. "This is not our experience," they think.

Now, the Other Europe is joining the Rest of Europe. The Other Europe has been, and continues to be transformed. But any reaction causes an equal and opposite reaction. The Rest of Europe is feeling the effects of this transformation. This blog will attempt to explore these issues, through politics, economics and anecdotes of daily life.