The period of the occupation of the Castle by Miloš Zeman and his entourage inherently includes pro-Kremlin policies and the strengthening of ties with Russia. As in the case of China, the pro-Russian economic policy of another eastern partner proved to bear bitter fruit, which only appealed to Moscow and a small group of Czech businessmen close to Miloš Zeman.
Miloš Zeman’s pro-Russian views were not born overnight. He was a regular guest at conferences organised by the Russian secret services, repeated Russian propaganda views of the world and defended Russia in international scandals by repeating verbatim the statements of Russian propaganda channels. More often than not, he was the only Western voice to downplay the crimes of the Putin regime, often helping the Kremlin to make its case more vehemently than Russia itself.
The fact that this was not just the old man’s folly may be indicated by the fees he collected from the Kremlin. For example, he received about two million crowns for a half-hour speech at a conference organised by the FSB in Rhodes, Greece. Much more significant, however, were the business benefits of Zeman’s entourage, which consisted mostly of the pro-Russian clique in the Czech Republic.
We cannot forget, for example, President Zeman’s close ties to the Strnad family, who control the Czechoslovak Group. In the opinion of several international analysts, it was founded by individuals with ties to the Russian secret services. Two people who were in charge of its connections with Russian business partners – Jaroslav Strnad and Alexei Belyaev – were particularly suspicious.
The Russian Embassy in Prague, with 120-140 employees with probable and proven ties to Russian intelligence services, has become the centre of Russian intelligence operations not only in the Czech Republic but also throughout Europe.
As we have already written above, guests receive significant fees for participating in similar events. It has also been known that Czechoslovak Group has financially and non-financially helped Miloš Zeman in his presidential campaigns.
The lack of regulation of Russian activities in the region and even active advocacy of Russian hostile operations against Europe and the West has resulted in a deteriorating security situation, support for Russian preparations for war against Ukraine, and Prague becoming one of the centres for money laundering.
When the public learned of the Russian secret services’ connection to the explosion of the ammunition depots in Vrbětice, or the Czech Republic’s involvement in the “Novichok case”, Miloš Zeman and those associated with him acted as advocates for the Putin regime. It was only at the end of Zeman’s presidency that the links of powerful Russians to the Czech Republic began to be exposed, their financial operations and their connections with hostile secret services were investigated. It was only after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Miloš Zeman also admitted a small public failure. However, he did end a decade of cooperation with Putin’s regime with a brief media penance.
The Eternal Trader with Crash Daneš Zátorský
The Ostrava businessman Daneš Zátorský was arrested by Polish police in July 2016 on the basis of a European arrest warrant. At first glance, the seemingly ordinary story of the Czech speculator seems interesting only because of the place of his arrest, but given that he was from Ostrava, maybe not even that. In reality, however, this ordinary story is the story of an extraordinary figure who, as a regional businessman, managed to build a position of influence with connections to the political top.
The reason for the arrest and the culmination of the businessman’s long looming downfall was an alleged fraud in excess of CZK 100 million. However, this was only one of many suspicions of involvement in smaller or smaller business troubles.
Daneš Zátorský is a man with a varied work history. In the 1990s he worked for the criminal police, and in the mid-1990s he began to gain experience in business. He started in smaller brokerage firms in Ostrava, then bought a minority stake in Broker & Partner, and gradually became a microfinance entrepreneur. Later he came to a majority stake in Garfield and his own holding Geofin.
Many of Geofin’s companies have been struggling with debt problems for years. Not only because of business failures, but, as the investigations showed, these were often systematic insolvencies and schemes to siphon off assets from companies and leave creditors “in the lurch”.
An example of insolvency in the Geofin network was the difficulties of VOKD. For years, the company had been paying supplier invoices late or not at all. Disputes caused by delayed handovers of buildings were also piling up. Officially, however, the company said after the insolvency was declared that it was the result of disputes with unions over the shape of the company’s reorganisation.
The name of Daneš Zátorský was also key in another important deal around the aircraft repair plant in Mošnov. The owner of the much-presented enterprise was described in PR as a hypermodern and leading enterprise of its kind, but in reality it was struggling economically to survive.
The repair shop was reportedly languishing mainly because of the hangar reconstruction project. It was burdened with old debts. Zátorský liked to use his political connections to put pressure on his partners on the state or local government side. In the media, for example, he talked about the fact that he had been promised subsidies from the relevant governor Pavol Lukš, and he also referred to promises and acquaintance with the deputy for investments Pavel Drobil. It is hard to say whether these were real official agreements or just a ruse, but it was the communication of complaints about non-subsidisation that started the spiral of debt problems of the company. According to Zátorský, he was left with a loan for the hangar and an overdraft for its operation.
The two largest creditors were supposed to be the Czech Export Bank and Česká spořitelna, whose claims allegedly exceeded CZK 800 million. Among other things, this suggested that the company had collected financial support for the project, but the money had disappeared somewhere. Here too, as with many of Daneš Zátorský’s businesses, suspicions of tax evasion were also investigated.
Daneš Zátorský’s personal finances were also infested with debt and suspicion. He was also involved in the case of Unibon, a fake credit company that lost its licence from the Czech National Bank and collapsed in 2012. It was this case that was linked to some of Zátorský’s most serious legal problems. He managed to get out of them, however, and the Moravian-Silesian businessman can still be found in many interesting transactions at the time of writing the History of Corruption.
