Translated material
No time for football now
Prague is preparing for the arrival of Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama
The event of the year is how the Czech media dubbed the upcoming signing of the Russian-American Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START) on April 8 in Prague. “The Czech Republic, as a NATO member, considers it an honor to host a meeting of such historical and symbolic significance,” said Czech Foreign Ministry spokesman Filip Kanda.Particularly noted here is the fact that the initiative to sign the treaty in Prague came from the Americans. On April 5, 2009, before the opening of the US-EU summit, Barack Obama gave a keynote speech in the Czech capital on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Washington also strongly emphasizes the connection between the current event and the declarations made then. "I am pleased that one year after my visit to Prague, the Czech Republic, a close friend and ally of the United States, has agreed to host the treaty," Obama said in a statement last week.
The solemn ceremony of signing the agreement will take place in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle, where the most important state events are traditionally held, including the election of the head of state. Before this, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama are expected to hold a bilateral meeting. After the signing of the agreement, a press conference and lunch are planned with the participation of the presidents of the United States, Russia and the Czech Republic. More than a thousand journalists from all over the world will cover the upcoming event.
As press attache of the Russian Embassy Vladimir Fedorov told Vremya Novostey yesterday, all recent days, including weekends and holidays (Easter Monday in the Czech Republic is a non-working day), Russian, American and Czech working groups have been coordinating the program of upcoming actions. It is expected that Dmitry Medvedev will fly to Prague before his American counterpart - on the afternoon of April 7 from Bratislava, where he will be on a visit. According to Fedorov, a meeting of the Russian leader with Czech President Vaclav Klaus is scheduled for the same evening. On Thursday, after signing the START treaty, Dmitry Medvedev will return to Moscow.
Barack Obama will fly to the Czech Republic on the day the agreement is signed. That same evening, at the residence of the American ambassador in the Bubeneč district of Prague, he will meet for dinner with the presidents and prime ministers of 11 countries of Central and Eastern Europe - the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. The main goal of the meeting is to assure European partners that the agreement with Russia does not in any way infringe on their interests. On Friday, before flying home, the US President will meet with Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Jan Fischer.
The first groups of American experts arrived in Prague in late March. Among their tasks is to study the route along which the motorcade with Obama will move from the airport, and the objects that he will visit during the visit. According to one version, the head of the White House will spend the night at the Prague Hilton Hotel, where he and his wife stayed during last year’s visit. There is no word yet on where Dmitry Medvedev will be staying. The last time the Russian president (this post was then held by Vladimir Putin) visited Prague in March 2006 and spent the night at the Vremena Goda hotel.
On the eve of the arrival of distinguished guests, increased security measures are being taken. On April 8, about one and a half thousand police officers will serve on the city streets, including specially trained personal bodyguards. Colleagues from other regions have been sent to help Prague law enforcement officers. Yas-39 Gripen fighter jets in service with the Czech Army have been entrusted with escorting presidential planes from the borders to Prague airport. The L-159 light multi-purpose combat aircraft and Mi-17 and Mi-24 transport and combat helicopters will also guard the airspace these days. Military doctors will have a W3A Falcon helicopter at their disposal. Military personnel of the 31st Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Brigade will be involved in anti-terrorism activities, among whose tasks is to detect traces of hazardous substances in the premises where meetings will take place.
As Radim Okhvat, director of the press service of the Office of the Czech President, told Vremya Novostey, from April 7 to April 9, the entire territory of Prague Castle will be closed to visitors. In many places in the city and in a significant part of the Ruzyne airport, parking of private cars will be prohibited. Football fans also felt the importance of the upcoming event. The Prague derby of eternal rivals Sparta and Slavia was planned for April 8, but for security reasons the match was postponed to next week.
Similar measures were taken in the Czech capital before previous major events - last year's visits by Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI, as well as the NATO summit in November 2002. However, this time we had to prepare with unprecedented speed: after all, the fact that the agreement would be signed in Prague became officially known only on March 24.
Local public movement “No to bases!” announced its intention to hold a protest rally in the coming days, the details of which it did not disclose. However, after the US abandons plans to install a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic, no one expects serious unrest like those that occurred in Prague during the meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in September 2000. Then the building of the Palace of Congresses, where the meetings took place, was blocked all day by militant anti-globalists. Only late in the evening did the police manage to lead numerous bankers and journalists, including the author of these lines, through emergency exits to the Visegrad metro station, from where the meeting participants traveled to their hotels by subway.
Czech politicians and political scientists believe that the meeting between the presidents of the United States and Russia will increase the international prestige of their country. Meanwhile, despite active Czech-American political contacts, the position of the US Ambassador in Prague has been empty since January last year and the timing of the appointment of a new head of the diplomatic mission is unknown. According to some reports, the candidacy of businessman Mark Nathanson for this post, proposed by the Obama administration, did not suit the US Senate.
The situation in the Czech Republic itself can also hardly be called prosperous. Before Obama's visit last year, parliament expressed no confidence in the right-wing liberal government of Mirek Topolanek, and the Czech Republic welcomed the American guest in a state of acute internal political crisis. Today the situation is somewhat similar, with Topolanek once again in the spotlight. Recently, the ex-prime minister had to resign as head of the former ruling Civic Democratic Party due to a scandal that erupted in connection with his offensive statements about the church and leading Czech politicians.