Vojtěch Filip is a Czech politician and ex-leader of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. As a Chairman of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Vojtěch Filip supported Russian policies. In November 2014, he received an invitation from Sergei Vladimirovich Zheleznyak, who is on the sanction list for both the USA and the EU. In March 2015, Vojtěch Filip was questioned by the Czech version of Sputnik and claimed there is no such thing as a Russian threat.
In November 2014, Filip journeyed to Moscow at the invitation of Sergei Zheleznyak. The Czech parliament assumed a resolution alienating itself from a controversial visit by the leader of the Czech communist party, Vojtěch Filip, to Russia. While the communist leader urged he was visiting Moscow to foster dialogue, non-communist Czech MPs from across the political spectrum have blamed the party leader for undermining Czech foreign policy interests and even feeding the Kremlin with useful propaganda.
Consequently, a strong debate took place about the financing of the journey, and Filip was condemned by the Parliament, who charged him with undermining Czech foreign policy interests and providing the Kremlin with useful propaganda. In August 2018, almost the 50th anniversary of the Prague Spring, Filip remarked that Russia should not be held accountable for the invasion, as Leonid Brezhnev and many of the soldiers implicated in the military action were from Ukraine.
The pro-Russian NGO Institute of Slavic Strategic Studies was established in 2013 in Prague. The institute manages public meetings in the Czech Parliament, the last one in April 2016 with the label “Myths about Russia”. During meetings, they present topics linked to foreign policy, for instance, Russian policy or the war in Syria. During discussions, they mostly encourage pro-Russian opinions and criticise the EU and the USA. During the seminar named “Current Fascism in Europe” in 2014, supported by the then Chairman of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Vojtěch Filip, speakers represented Ukraine as a neo-Nazi state supported by the USA. “Ukraine is a new neo-Nazi state.
