Lipavský: Putin regime aims far beyond control of Ukraine

Last year, there was still hope that Russia, after failing to achieve practically any of its war aims, would start looking for a way to negotiate, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said in his speech at a meeting of Czech foreign ambassadors in Prague on Monday. However, the opposite has turned out to be the case, he said, with Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime aiming far beyond the control of Ukraine. Until Russia gets rid of Putinism, which he described as "a mixture of imperialism based on Russian and Soviet colonial history, with references to Orthodox mysticism, and building on the methods of the KGB and the St. Petersburg mafia," whoever sits in the Kremlin will always be intent on suppressing freedoms inside and outside of Russia.

He said that democratic countries need to push Russia out of positions in international organisations and added that Czechia fully supports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, as it is the only way out of the war. The foreign minister also announced that Czechia had been chosen, along with France, to be co-chair of a new group dedicated to the nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine.

He also commented in his speech on the increasing risk posed by China, which he said was becoming a systemic rival that is trying to change the world order, and remarked on the risk of a Chinese alliance with Russia.