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Former president Václav Havel has begun a year-long series of public discussions about Czech society. The first debate in the Sunrise in the Czech Republic series took place at Brno’s Divadlo Husa na provázku theatre on Saturday. The discussions are intended as a forum for critical reflection on the state of the country as the November 2009 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution draws near. Mr Havel said he enjoyed the first debate with Brno university students, who he said had not been deformed by the communist system. The playwright and former dissident also said he did not understand opposition to a planned US radar base; America has selflessly helped the Czechs many times in the past, he said.

Divadlo Husa na provázku on Friday premiered a new show entitled Cirkus Havel, which features scenes from a number of Mr Havel’s plays, including his most recent, Leaving.

Police have begun investigating the cause of a huge fire at Prague’s biggest market last week. Large parts of the Vietnamese-run Sapa market at Libuše in Prague 6 were destroyed in a blaze that at one point was fought by 350 fire officers. An estimated CZK 100 million worth of goods was destroyed in the fire, which broke out at a clothing and footwear warehouse on Wednesday night. Smoke could be smelled across large areas of Prague and people living near the market were told to keep their windows closed.

The Czech ice hockey team were beaten 1:0 on penalties by Russia in their final game at the Karjala Cup in Helsinki on Sunday. Victory would have given the Czechs their first triumph in the opening event of the Euro Hockey Tour for the first time since 2002. In their previous two games they lost to the hosts Finland and beat Sweden.

The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolánek, says Russian observers will only be allowed at a planned American radar base in central Bohemia with the permission of the Czech Republic. He made the comments following reports that the US had offered Moscow even more access to the facility than previously envisaged. Mr Topolánek said such access was not included in treaties between Washington and Prague; he said no change could be made without Czech agreement. The prime minister also indicated that the Czech Parliament will now vote on ratifying radar treaties with the US following the inauguration in January of the next American president.

Tensions mounted this week after the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, announced his intention to deploy short-range missiles near the Polish border; Poland is set to host missile interceptors linked to the radar in the Czech Republic.

Poland’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, said on Friday that the whole fate of the project depended on the speed of ratification by the Czechs. While Poland’s parliament is expected to approve a missile base without much opposition, Mr Sikorski said Czech ratification had become a more distant prospect.

The president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, issued a statement saying that Barack Obama had promised him the US would continue with plans to build the anti-missile system when he takes office. However, an aide to Mr Obama later said no such commitment had been made.

Meanwhile, the main Czech opposition party, the Social Democrats, have said they will push for the lower house of Parliament to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on whether treaties already signed with the Americans are in line with the Czech constitution. The Social Democrats, who are opposed to the radar, say the constitution makes allowance for the short-term deployment of foreign soldiers on Czech soil, but not for an indefinite period. They would also like ratification to require a constitutional – or three-fifths – majority.