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Czech agro-chemical giant Agrofert, owned by billionaire businessman and leader of the ANO political party Andrej Babiš, has complained about four separate reports by public service broadcaster Czech Television. It says the reports suggested that the company was given favourable treatment it would not have won were it not for Babiš’ public position. He is also minister of finance and a deputy prime minister. The company has called for the reports on the investigative programme ‘Reporters’ to be corrected and action to be taken against those responsible. Czech Television said the complaints will be dealt with in the usual way by the broadcaster’s council. The broadcaster has recently been the focus of attacks by President Miloš Zeman and his close allies after a live broadcast of the head of state’s spokesman was dropped. President Zeman has suggested those damaged by tv reports need not pay their license fees.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has defended the president’s decision to travel to Moscow on May 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WW II and to honour those who died fighting against the Nazi threat. On Tuesday, Mr Sobotka said he would not try and intervene – reacting to an appeal by the former speaker of the lower house, opposition MP Miroslava Němcová of the Civic Democrats, who has criticized the visit and the president as the only EU head-of-state so far due to attend on the anniversary in Moscow, given Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. The Czech prime minister indicated that the visit by Mr Zeman would not change the Czech Republic’s stance on Ukraine and sanctions against Russia and Vladimir Putin’s regime. In the past, the Washington Post slammed the Czech president’s approach to Russia, calling him a “virtual mouthpiece” for Mr Putin.

The Czech subsidiary of the Swedish construction and development firm Skanska is suspected of being involved in a corruption scandal, Czech Radio reported on Tuesday. The radio quoted two high-ranking Skanska officials, who said that Skanska sent 100 million crowns to a company that was involved in completing the R7 motorway, adding that the money was subsequently used for bribing. The head of the Czech Skanska at the time was the current transport minister Dan Ťok, nominated by the ANO party.

Construction firm Metrostav has offered Prague City Hall it will take full responsibility for completing work on the controversial Blanka tunnel complex. The opening of the tunnel was recently postponed indefinitely by Prague authorities after it emerged that hundreds of kilometres of electric cables had been damaged by water and needed replacing. In a letter addressed to Prague mayor Adriana Krnáčová, the head of Metrostav, Jiří Bělohlav, said the firm was ready to take over the technological part of the construction from ČKD Praha DIZ, a firm that supplied the damaged cables. Originally meant to open in 2011, the 37-billion crown project was most recently scheduled to open in April.