Subversive foreign policy

The closest Vladimir Putin came yesterday before his meeting with Alexander Lukashenko to a reference to Czechs was when he said that Russia wants Belarusians to resolve their issues on the own, without prompting or pressure from without. Lukashenko has repeatedly blamed Poland, the CR, Lithuania and Ukraine for outside interference, but the Czech media haven't given his words much weight. If Lukashenko says it, it must not be true. Yet ex-diplomat Petr Kolář revealed to Czech Radio last month that when he was deputy foreign minister, he helped form a sort-of subversive unit for supporting democracy in non-democratic countries. Another ex-dep. foreign minister, Petr Drulák, called on the Czech government to quit funding People in Need in Belarus because of its links to the National Endowment for Democracy and other "exporters of democracy." This will fall on deaf ears. Czechs don't want an open discussion about how subversive their foreign policy should be.