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PRAGUE (AP) — František Janouch, a Czech nuclear physicist who set up a foundation in Sweden while in exile to support the dissident movement in his communist homeland at the time, has died. The Charter 77 Foundation said Janouch died on Friday morning in Sweden's capital, Stockholm, where he had lived since the 1970s. Born on Sept. 22, 1931 in the town of Lysa nad Labem near Prague, Janouch studied nuclear physics at Charles University in Prague and at universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the then Soviet Union. Political Cartoons View All 253 ImagesAt the invitation of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, he moved to Sweden in 1974. “František Janouch contributed significantly to the return of freedom to our country,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala said.

Persons: Janouch, Václav Havel, Havel, “ František Janouch, Petr Fiala Organizations: Charles University, Nuclear Physics Institute, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Locations: PRAGUE, Czech, Sweden, Sweden's, Stockholm, Lysa nad Labem, Prague, Moscow, St, Petersburg, Soviet Union, Soviet, Czechoslovakia, Swedish

☆ Putin: Sending Soviet Tanks Into Hungary and Czechoslovakia Was a Mistake
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Sept. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +1 min

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush mass protests during the Cold War was a mistake. "It was a mistake," Putin said when asked about perceptions of Russia as a colonial power due to Moscow's decision to send tanks into Budapest in 1956 and into Prague in 1968. Putin said the United States was making the same mistakes as the Soviet Union. The 1956 Hungarian Uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks and troops. At least 2,600 Hungarians and 600 Soviet troops were killed in the fighting.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Washington, Guy Faulconbridge, Mark Trevelyan Organizations: Soviet, Czechoslovak Locations: VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Budapest, Prague, Ukraine, Europe, United States, Soviet Union, Soviet, Warsaw, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czech

☆ Putin: sending Soviet tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia was a mistake
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to a report presentation on the development of Russia's far eastern regions held via a video link in Vladivostok, Russia, September 11, 2023. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsVLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush mass protests during the Cold War was a mistake. "It was a mistake," Putin said when asked about perceptions of Russia as a colonial power due to Moscow's decision to send tanks into Budapest in 1956 and into Prague in 1968. The 1956 Hungarian Uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks and troops. At least 2,600 Hungarians and 600 Soviet troops were killed in the fighting.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Putin, Washington, Guy Faulconbridge, Mark Trevelyan Organizations: Rights, Soviet, Czechoslovak, Thomson Locations: Vladivostok, Russia, Rights VLADIVOSTOK, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Budapest, Prague, Ukraine, Europe, United States, Soviet Union, Soviet, Warsaw, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czech

☆ Putin Invited Wagner Leader Prigozhin 'for Tea' Recently, Says UK Spy Chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Vladimir Putin had tea with mutiny leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the UK's spy chief said. However, after striking a deal with Wagner leader Prigozhin to call off the mutiny, Putin's actions have been mysterious. There are some things that even the chief of MI6 find a little difficult to try and interpret," Sir Richard said. Asked whether he believes Prigozhin is still alive, Sir Richard said that "as far we can tell Prigozhin is floating around," reported Sky News. Sir Richard, officially codenamed "C", compared the situation in Ukraine to the Prague Spring in 1968.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Richard Moore, Wagner, Sir Richard Moore, Putin, Prigozhin, he'd, Sir Richard Organizations: Service, Wagner Group, Sky, Sky News, Analysts, Kremlin Locations: Russian, Wall, Silicon, Prague, Czech Republic, Russia, Moscow, Belarus, St Petersburg, Ukraine

☆ UK intel chief invites Russians 'silently appalled' by the Ukraine war to share their secrets and spy for MI6
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Britain's intelligence chief invited Russians who are upset with the Ukraine war to spy for MI6. Espionage has been a feature of the war, and the CIA even tried earlier this year to recruit spies. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Their secrets will always be safe with us, and together we will work to bring the bloodshed to an end. Espionage and intelligence gathering has long been a feature of Russia's war in Ukraine, and MI6 is not the first Western intelligence agency to try and recruit Russians.

Persons: Richard Moore, you'll, Richard Moore ,, Moore, Vladimir Putin's, Putin, Kyiv, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Organizations: CIA, Service, Intelligence Service, Soviet, Western, NATO, Wagner Group Locations: Ukraine, Wall, Silicon, Moscow, Prague, Soviet Union, Soviet, Russia

☆ Milan Kundera dies, reclusive literary giant and author of 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Ivana Kottasová | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

“Milan Kundera, a Czech-French author who is among the world’s most translated authors, died on July 11, 2023 in his Paris apartment,” the library, a state-funded research organization, said in a statement. The author of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” Kundera was known for his witty, tragicomic tales, which were often intertwined with deep philosophical debates and satirical portrayals of life under communist oppression. Exile in ParisHe spent the rest of his life in exile in Paris, becoming a French citizen in 1981. While his Czech citizenship was restored in 2019, he was by then a French author whose home was in France. Kundera, having spent more than two decades living in seclusion and declining to do interviews, took the unusual step of speaking up.

Persons: Milan Kundera, “ Milan Kundera, ” Kundera, Kundera, ”, “, Daniel Day, Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Respekt, Vaclav Havel Organizations: CNN, Moravian, Communist Party, Czech, Czech Institute Locations: Czech, Paris, Brno, French, Czechoslovakia, Prague, Soviet, France

[1/3] Writer Milan Kundera is pictured in Prague, former Czechoslovakia, May 6, 1963. CTK Photo/Frantisek Nesvadba via REUTERSPRAGUE, July 12 (Reuters) - Czech-born writer Milan Kundera, author of the novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" who lived nearly five decades in Paris after emigrating in disillusionment from his Communist-ruled homeland, has died at the age of 94. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Kundera was "a writer and a voice that we will miss". "Milan Kundera's work is at the same time a deep, human, intimate and distant exploration," she said. Fellow Czech writer Karel Hvizdala told Czech Television he saw his friend last November and he was already in poor health.

Persons: Milan Kundera, Frantisek Nesvadba, Kundera, Petr Fiala, Petr Pavel, Pavel, Elisabeth Borne, Milan, Karel Hvizdala, Albert Camus, Daniel Day, Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Philip Kaufman, Timothy Garton Ash, Monde, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Czechoslovakia's, Jan Lopatka, Robert Muller, Elizabeth Pineau, Tassilo Hummel, Michael Kahn, Jason Hovet, Toby Chopra, Kevin Liffey, Mark Heinrich, Nick Macfie Organizations: CTK, REUTERS, Moravian, Prague Spring, Czech Television, Czechoslovak Communist, New York Times, Oxford University, Paris Mayor, Czechoslovakia's Communist, Thomson Locations: Prague, Czechoslovakia, REUTERS PRAGUE, Czech, Paris, Brno, France, Communist Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak, Europe, Central Europe, French, Western

☆ Moscow's 'special' forces: An inside look at how Russia's famed Spetsnaz really operate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Mark Galeotti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +24 min

Russia's Spetsnaz forces are often depicted as a kind of Russian super troops. Osprey PublishingMost countries' special forces emphasize physical fitness, determination and aggression. Special people, for special tasksMembers of the Russian military's 16th Separate Special Purpose Brigade during an exercise in 2018. Even so, being better than most of the Soviet army's miserable and recalcitrant conscript forces did not make most of them truly special, special forces. The special operations commandMembers of Russian's 22nd Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade during an exercise in November 2017.

☆ Slovak film director Jakubisko dies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Slovak film director Juraj Jakubisko, who was named the best director of the 20th century in his country and dubbed the "Fellini of the East", has died at the age of 84, Slovak public broadcaster RTVS said on Saturday. Jakubisko died in Prague, where he lived, his daughter told RTVS. The director studied film in the 1960s in Prague, joining a generation of Czechoslovak New Wave film-makers and released his feature debut, the autobiographical "The Prime of Life" (Kristove Roky), in 1967. Jakubisko returned to feature film-making in the 1980s, with Federico Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina, starring in his fairy tale "Perinbaba" in 1985. He released "Bathory", his first English-language film, in 2008 to tell the story of Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory, thought to be one of the world's most notorious serial killers.

☆ Some Czechs sending 1,968 crowns to Ukraine in memory of 1968 Soviet invasion
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PRAGUE, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Czech nationals have been sending exactly 1,968 crowns ($80) to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia and to commemorate the 1968 invasion of then Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops, the Ukrainian embassy said on Sunday. Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, which has killed thousands, forced millions to flee and caused damage worth billions of dollars, enters its seventh month next week. read moreThe Czechs were using a special payment code to donate 1,968 crowns ($80) to an already existing account set up by Ukraine's embassy in the Czech Republic to collect funds. "Even at the weekend, dozens and dozens of payments in the value of 1,968 crowns are arriving to our account, thank you so much, Czech friends!" The troops killed dozens of civilians and the subsequent occupation pushed tens of thousands into exile.

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