Minister calls for expulsion of former party leader over interview for sanctioned news site

The deputy head of the Christian Democrats and current Environment Minister Petr Hladík said on Czech Television on Sunday that he wants to propose the expulsion of his own party's former leader, Cyril Svoboda, to the party leadership, over an interview Mr. Svoboda gave to the pro-Kremlin Voice of Europe news site. The site has been on the Czech sanctions list since Wednesday after the Czech secret service discovered it was being funded by a Russian network paying off European politicians. Mr. Svoboda was one of the last Czechs to give an interview to the Voice of Europe website before it was sanctioned.