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The head of the Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek, has reacted angrily to criticism he has faced over a trip he made to Moscow last month. He was reported to have held talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin without informing Czech diplomats in Moscow or the foreign ministry in Prague. In a statement, however, Mr Paroubek said that the Czech embassy in the Russian capital had not offered him any help. He said that they could at least have seen Mr Putin at close quarters, which the Czech ambassador Miroslav Kostelka had not often done during three years in Moscow.

The Christian Democrats have signed a pre-election pact with the European Democrats under which the two parties will contest early elections in October together, their leaders Cyril Svoboda and Jana Hybášková said in Prague on Tuesday. Candidates from the relatively small European Democrats are set to appear on the lists of the Christian Democrats, who are currently the fourth biggest party in the lower house. Some senior figures from the Christian Democrats recently left to form a new party, TOP 09.

Police have filed charges against a man who let off a hand grenade in a restaurant in Prague last week. The man could face up to eight years in jail after deliberately pulling the pin out of a grenade in the pub U Českého lva on Thursday. Four people were injured in the blast, while the accused sustained a serious injury to his left leg. No motive has yet been established, police said.

The Czech Republic and the Principality of Liechtenstein have agreed to normalise diplomatic relations for the first time in 17 years. The announcement was made Monday by Prime Minister Jan Fischer and Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Kohout. Mr Kohout said that the agreement would be accompanied by a memorandum proposing the creation of a commission of historians tasked with reviewing points of contention between the two countries. Until now, Liechtenstein has been the only country in the world not to recognise the Czech Republic, a situation caused by the confiscation of the Liechtenstein family’s numerous possessions in Czechoslovakia following WWII. Much of the dispute has centred on whether the famous noble family was or was not “German”, as per the post-war decrees under which their holdings in the country were seized. According to Prime Minister Fischer, the normalisation of diplomatic relations is not based upon any conditions or property concessions.