Russian soldiers with a 2B11 Sani 120mm guided mortar in an unspecified area of Ukraine on January 13, 2023.
Prague – According to the Senate, the Russian Federation represents the most significant threat to global security. The Upper Chamber stated this today in connection with the approaching one-year anniversary of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. In the resolution, she also supported the government's efforts to establish an international tribunal for crimes of aggression committed by top Russian officials, to strengthen Ukraine's defense capabilities, and to increase the Czech Republic's defense capabilities against the Russian threat.
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“The Senate considers Russia to be the most significant threat to Czech, European and global security, and therefore calls on the government to take steps to defend the republic,” reads the resolution of the upper chamber, in which it also invited the cabinet to review relations with Russia. “As long as Russia continues military operations on the territory of a sovereign state and occupies the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine, there is no reason to change our position,” the Senate noted.
According to the chairman of the foreign, defense and security committee, Pavel Fischer (unaffiliated), the basis for revising relations with Russia should be the fact that Russia is an aggressor that destabilizes Europe. According to Fischer, the primary task is to maintain the common progress of the allies in the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance.
The chairman of the Senate committee also pointed to a message from Estonian counterintelligence, according to which Russia is ready to put much more on the line in order to convince Ukraine to finally come to the negotiating table. In addition, according to Fischer, the secret service of the Baltic state has pointed out that Russia is moving towards a total dictatorship and an even more radical faction is coming to the fore in the Russian ruling elite than before.
Fischer said that Russia is not succeeding a decisive breakthrough, but in some areas it pushes the line. “A war of attrition has begun and how long it will last is really hard to estimate,” he noted.
According to the resolution of the upper chamber, Russia is violating the UN Charter, which “shakes the legitimacy of the Russian Federation” in this organization and the entire international United Nations system.
According to the upper chamber, the cabinet should support not only Russian, but also Belarusian civil society. The opinion of the Senate on the Belarus of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko reminds that Russia uses the territory of this country for attacks against Ukraine, and the top representatives of the Belarusian regime thus “become accomplices in the crime of aggression”.
In the resolution on Belarus, the Senate recommended the government to imposed sanctions on members of the repressive branches of the Belarusian secret police, the KGB and GUBOPIK, and declared them to be organizations supporting terrorism. GUBOPIK is an acronym for the Belarusian Main Administration for the Fight against Organized Crime and Corruption, which focuses, among other things, on the persecution of opposition leaders.
In the near future, the Senate should comment on the possible participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Olympic Games in 2024 in Paris. “It is impossible for us to pretend that it is only about sport and that politics has nothing to do with sport. It has been there for a long time,” emphasized Fischer. The senators will meet for the next meeting on Wednesday, March 8.
