Czech official warns of Europe crises

You have to distinguish between strictly military issues and geopolitical issues. From the military sense, this is not against Russia. This is not a threat to Russia and will not affect Russia's security. Geopolitically . . . the problem for the Russians is clearly the presence of a system and of U.S. forces on the territory of the former Warsaw Pact. You have to distinguish military reasons from geopolitical reasons. For us, both are important. . . . We are glad that one significant piece of NATO architecture will have its presence on the territory of the Czech Republic.

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Is there any concern about possible sanctions from Russia? Could it affect your fuel supply?

We hope Russia will be a reliable gas and oil supplier, as we are paying for our gas and our oil. We are fortunate that we have some maneuvering space in the sense that we get oil and gas from two different directions. [One-third of oil imports and one-fourth of gas imports are from non-Russian suppliers.]

I am not expecting any sanctions or reactions from Russia.

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Have you seen any signs on the military front of increasing Russian pressure on your country, such as deploying missiles or troops?

Well, I hope they will not have a chance to deploy them on our territory. They did that 40 years ago and I hope that was the last time. . . . We haven't seen any specific military movements or activities with respect to the Czech Republic, but we have seen some [Russian] messages to the West -- to NATO, the European Union and the United States.

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What do you think the Russians could do in Crimea? Annex it from Ukraine?

A new conflict can be created in Crimea . . . because of [Russia's] political and demographic and military presence. You have a lot of similarities to the situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but it is not exactly the same. We should pay real attention to Ukraine, . . . supporting economic stability and, as far as we can do it, political stability.

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How should the European Union respond to the Georgian crisis? Should there be sanctions against Russia?

There shouldn't be any talk about sanctions, because I cannot see what kind of sanctions we would be talking about. The response should be a strong Western presence in the Caucasus and Ukraine in terms of support of economic stability, international presence on the ground, international monitors on the ground, and it should be robust. . . . The U.S. announcement releasing $1 billion for Georgia is exactly the way we should move forward.