British efforts to counter Russian spies in Europe are at risk because of elections in Czechia. The prospect of a pro-Putin government in Prague has Moscow “rubbing its hands” with glee, officials have warned.
Voters head to the polls on Friday and Saturday in a race between governing pro-Western parties and billionaire pro-Putin populist Andrej Babiš, who is leading in the polls.
The current pro-Western government has forged close links with Britain, its intelligence services and diplomats, with both sides discussing how best to contain Russia.
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Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph on the eve of the vote, Jan Lipavský, the Czech foreign minister, said: “Today, Czechia is among Europe’s leaders in a firm, principled stance against the Kremlin. A Babiš government would reverse that course.”
He added: “Moscow is already rubbing its hands at the prospect of Mr Babiš going soft on Russia – weakening sanctions, scrapping the Czech ammunition initiative, and undoing the restrictions on the movement of Russian ‘diplomats’ that we advanced with close partners.”
Mr Babiš portrays himself as an outsider rebel against the political establishment and claims he will run Czechia like a company.
In fact he has been part of the establishment all his life. He grew up in a family that was part of the elite of the communist dictatorship of Czechoslovakia. He made his fortune in the “wild 1990s” after the collapse of communism.
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A court in Slovakia found that he once worked as an agent for the Czechoslovak secret service, under the code name “Bures,” but Mr Babiš denies this.
He served as Czech prime minister in a centre-Left government in his last term of office from 2017 to 2021, when he was in coalition with the Czech Social Democratic Party. He later turned to nationalist and conservative politics, taking notes from the Maga movement and turning ANO into a Right-wing populist party.
Andrej Babiš has pledged to lower taxes, raise pensions and keep the country out of the euro if he returns to power - Milan Jaros/Bloomberg
He has built a powerbase among rural and poorer voters in former industrial heartlands who are furious at the current centre-Right government’s unpopular austerity measures and respond to his promises to cut taxes, slash energy prices and raise pensions.
Mr Babiš has vowed to scrap the successful Czech initiative to source a million artillery shells for Ukraine if his ANO party returns to power after four years in opposition.
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ANO will almost certainly fall short of a majority, forcing him to try and find coalition allies in the far-Right SPD and possibly the far-Left Stačilo!, which both want to quit the European Union and Nato and halt aid to Ukraine.
The UK-backed Czech efforts to curb Russian diplomats’ ability to have free movement in the EU because such envoys can often be spies. That has now been proposed by the European Commission but could be blocked by a pro-Russian government. The two countries have also worked together on intelligence sharing, military deliveries to Ukraine, training, sanctions and other diplomatic pressure on Russia.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala visited Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street in July. He discussed the Coalition of the Willing nations supporting Ukraine before being given a tour of MI6.
Petr Fiala, the Czech prime minster, addresses crowds in Prague on Sept 18. If re-elected the PM plans to continue backing Ukraine - Michal Cizek/AFP
The pro-Western government is a particularly useful ally in central and eastern Europe, where pro-Moscow feeling can be stronger and Russian disinformation is rife.
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Countries close to Ukraine have historic and often energy links to Russia and there are signs of war weariness amid high inflation and the cost of living crisis. Neighbouring Slovakia is led by Robert Fico, a Left-wing nationalist who ended weapon donations to Ukraine and met with Putin. The pro-Putin far-Right FPO won the last elections in Austria but could not form a coalition government.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban is an ally of Mr Babiš, an admirer of Donald Trump who has adopted the US president’s red baseball cap on the campaign trail. He has criticised Western sanctions on Moscow, refused to allow weapons deliveries to Ukraine to cross Hungarian territory and signed new energy deals with the Kremlin after the invasion.
Mr Babiš ran in presidential elections in 2023, losing to ex-Nato general Petr Pavel, whose victory was seen as a sign that Czechs remained firmly rooted in the West.
Before these elections President Pavel warned voters not to “leave the country at Russia’s mercy and its efforts to regain its sphere of influence in central and eastern Europe.” He vowed he would scrutinise any ministers in a future government to ensure they were not plotting to take the Czech Republic out of the EU or Nato.
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Mr Pavel can not officially block ministerial appointment but he does have the power to delay and frustrate the process in the hope of convincing Mr Babiš to change his mind.
“We’ll never drag the Czech Republic to the East. I can absolutely rule that out,” Mr Babiš told a crowd in the former steel town of Kladno, just outside Prague, in an effort to convince voters he would not abandon the West to please his possible coalition allies. He added: “And never – I repeat, never – will we consider leaving the European Union. Look at what happened to Great Britain! And they’re a nuclear power. They’ve got gas, oil, a fishing industry. They’re friends with Trump.”
Mr Babiš once wanted to join the euro but has since become a Eurosceptic who hands out “Strong Czechia” baseball caps inspired by Trump’s Maga slogan. Like Mr Orban he insists he wants to reform the EU rather than leave it so that it is led by capitals not by Brussels.
Andrej Babiš shakes hands with Donald Trump in 2019. The Czech billionaire has aped elements of the US president’s populist agenda - SAUL LOEB/AFP
The 71-year-old made his fortune as owner of the sprawling Agrofert food, chemicals and media holding. It now employs 31,000 people, including 21,000 in the Czech Republic alone. He has a net worth of £2.9 billion, according to the 2025 Forbes list.
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He is facing trial for EU subsidy fraud worth about £1.5m from 2007 when he allegedly took his Stork Nest farm out of Agrofert to make it eligible for a small business subsidy. Mr Babiš has always denied wrongdoing, labelling the charges as a politically motivated “smear campaign”.
He has also been under investigation in France since 2022 for suspected money laundering and tax fraud over the acquisition of a €5m (£4.36m) castle on the picturesque French Riviera via offshore companies.
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[SRC] https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/uk-security-interests-risk-pro-103208751.html
