Today, Czech President Milos Zeman arrived in Sochi for talks with Vladimir Putin.
He's a sincere advocate of lifting anti-Russian sanctions and building good-neighborly relations with Moscow. Zeman's words also reflect his actions. This time he arrived in Russia with such a large representative delegation of businessmen that it required an additional plane. The economy, however, was just one of the topics discussed.
Pavel Zarubin reports on the talks between Russia and the Czech Republic. By the way, they spoke Russian.
Zeman: Hello, it's very good to see you.
Putin: It's good to see you, too.
It's typical of the Czech President to speak Russian in Russia, but today he even stopped his assistants who started interpreting Putin's words into Czech, in fact, meaning that if someone didn't know Russian, it was their fault.
Putin: I would like to thank you for accepting our invitation...
Zeman: Sorry. No need to translate. Even journalists must understand Russian. If they don't, too bad for them.
Putin: Thank you.
The whole dialogue continued in Russian. Zeman began with the main news of the day, the negotiations of Putin and Assad in Sochi.
Zeman: You had a meeting with President Assad yesterday.
Putin: I will tell you about that meeting in detail.
Zeman: You have won in Syria because he controls nearly the entire territory of Syria, with the exception of a few minor regions. And after all, he is the democratically elected president.
Many EU leaders, who have called Assad a dictator for many years and demanded his ouster, are shocked to hear these words from a President of an EU country. Zeman regularly shakes up Europe politically. From the very first day, he was against anti-Russian sanctions.
Today he reiterated that they must be lifted, while Russia should cancel its response measures.
Zeman: After all, if you don't, you will be deprived of our excellent cheeses and yogurts.
Putin: We'll get the beer, and somehow manage to do without the yogurts.
Today Zeman also recalled the Ukrainian statesmen's speeches, claiming that the Soviet Union attacked Ukraine and Germany, and their tantrum after the Czech President's speech about Crimea.
Zeman: If we try to take Crimea and return it to Ukraine, then a European-wide war will begin. The situation with Crimea is a fait accompli.
In response, Ukrainian nationalists brought a goat to the Czech embassy in Kiev and demanded that it be given to Zeman. Greetings to the President! Those were street hooligans, but even the Prime Minister sank to new lows with his direct insults to Zeman.
Vladimir Groysman, Ukraine's PM: "You know, a healthy person would never say this, but a deeply mentally ill person can."
Jiří Ovčáček, Czech President's spokesman: "It's a cry emanating a Neanderthal cave, there's no place for them in modern Europe."
The Czech President is sure that the future of Europe is good relations with Russia. Joking or not, Zeman said the relationship with Moscow was exactly 10 times more important to him than, for example, ties with Paris.
Zeman: When I traveled to France, only fourteen businesspeople accompanied me. One hundred and forty have come with me to Russia, which is ten times more.
Putin: Because the Czech Republic has a bigger market here than in France.
Zeman: Absolutely.
Putin: This is the first reason, and the second reason is that large Czech companies such as Skoda operate here successfully. Cooperation is also developing in the energy sector, both in hydrocarbons and nuclear power.
In October alone, the Skoda sales in Russia soared by 20%. There's a big contract in Yekaterinburg for the modernization of Czech trams at a Ural plant.
After the recent fall, the trade turnover between the two countries is increasing sharply.
Zeman: All systems are operating normally — as they say when piloting spacecrafts.
Zeman's big tour of Russia plans to make them operate ideally. He'll leave Sochi for Moscow to go to Yekaterinburg. In the face of EU sanctions, the Czech Republic is building relations with Russia in a way that makes it appear there are no sanctions at all.
Pavel Zarubin, Andrei Melnikov, Dmitry Yarmolenko, and Pyotr Ravnov for Vesti from Sochi.
