As the Ukraine conflict fuels talk of another “cold war”, a new Russian account of Moscow’s military intervention in eastern Europe nearly 50 years ago has tainted relations with two of its few EU friends.
Czechs and Slovaks were angered by a documentary shown recently on Russian state television that depicted the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia as the act of a friendly state to prevent a western- backed coup and possible Nato invasion of the Warsaw Pact member.
This caused outrage, given that the Red Army was actually deployed to crush the Prague Spring – a wave of liberal reforms through which Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek sought to create “socialism with a human face”.
The invasion claimed the lives of more than 100 people, injured hundreds and led to Soviet troops being stationed in Czechoslovakia until 1991 – something Moscow officially apologised for after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The film also reinforced a feeling that Russian president Vladimir Putin and allies are rewriting history, casting a glow of patriotic nostalgia over the Soviet era, while churning out poisonous and unremitting propaganda about "fascist" Ukraine.
Ambassador summoned
Czech foreign minister Lubomir Zaoralek summoned Russia’s ambassador to the country and asked him: “How, in heaven’s name, can you be talking about us this way in Russia?” the minister told Radio Prague.
“When you look at the film, then you see that it is of the kind that propagates a black-and-white world view. Here is the evil West, and our side is the good and ‘white’ one, which was only acting defensively. And into that they happen to throw in the events of 1968.”
The film’s claim that many Czechoslovaks welcomed the Soviet invasion also rankled, amid widespread alarm in central and eastern Europe at Russia’s support for Ukraine’s rebels and its military manoeuvres near the borders of Nato states. The Slovak foreign ministry said it was “unpleasantly surprised” by a documentary peppered with “misrepresentations and old ideological clichés”.
Respecting truth
Bratislava said it insisted “on respecting the truth . . . about the events of 1968, which meant a great and long-lasting tragedy for Czechoslovakia and its citizens”.
"Broadcasting this documentary, which attempts to rewrite history and to falsify historical truths about such a dark chapter of our history, damages the traditionally good relations between Slovakia and Russia. "
The Czech Republic and Slovakia have raised doubts about the effectiveness of western sanctions on Russia over its interference in Ukraine, and support continued engagement with the Kremlin.
Czech president Milos Zeman and Slovak prime minister Robert Fico were the only EU leaders to go to Russia for its May 9th Victory Day celebrations, though they stayed away from a huge military parade on Red Square.
It is not known whether Mr Fico challenged Russia’s leaders about the controversial documentary when he met them in Moscow yesterday.
He did discuss the possibility of linking central Europe to a pipeline that Russia plans to build under the Black Sea, which would dramatically reduce the role of Ukraine and neighbouring Slovakia as energy transit states.