Klaus refuses to return Pushkin Medal over Russian aggression

The former Czech president Václav Klaus has said he sees no reason to return the Pushkin Medal awarded to him in 2007 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Klaus told the news site Lidovky.cz that he disapproved of cheap Russia-bashing and argued that he had been awarded "a Pushkin Medal, not a Putin medal", a tradition that had moreover been established by Boris Jelcin. Some Pushkin Medal winners have returned the award in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.