Political life in relatively small European countries, such as the Czech Republic, has its own peculiarities. The number of cards in the political deck, as well as the number of influential and, consequently, recognisable politicians within it, is relatively small. However, applying the analogy of a political deck of cards to Central European Czechia is not entirely appropriate. The political topography of “Putin’s friends” is so specific that it is best compared to a Russian nesting doll, Matryoshka.
SPD (Freedom and Direct Democracy). The party was founded in 2015. It takes a firm anti-immigration and Eurosceptic stance, consistently adhering to social conservatism, Czech nationalism, anti-Islamism, and right-wing populism. Due to the provocative flamboyance of its unchanging leader, Tomio Okamura, it is associated with an uncompromising public opposition. The SPD has ten and a half thousand active members.
Even at its founding in the distant 2015, the new party immediately set its course towards enforcement of immigration laws. “We are a radical movement and aspire to set radical political goals,” reports Radim Fiala, the partner of the party’s founder, Okamura.
The SPD believes that the current model of building a European superstate poses a threat to the country’s interests. The party will also insist on tightening laws for immigrants that will establish zero tolerance towards immigrants in the Czech Republic. The slogan of the right-wing radical SPD, “No to Islam, no to terrorism,” is always on their election posters.
In 2016, Tomio Okamura, the head of the Czech party “Freedom and Direct Democracy” and a member of the Czech Parliament, claimed that American money and advisors were responsible for the emergence of organisations such as “Al-Qaeda,” ISIS (DAESH), and the “Taliban,” which in turn triggered the migration crisis in Europe. In practice, the SPD and its leader, Tomio Okamura, do not deny Russian funding and do not conceal their wish to lift sanctions against Russia.
In an interview with the Czech portal ParlamentníListy.cz, Okamura characterised the policies of the United States and the European Union in the Middle East as catastrophic. He also pointed out that if the United States and certain Western countries had not caused destruction in various Middle Eastern and North African countries, the migration crisis in Europe would not have arisen. However, what is the relationship between these purportedly “independent politicians”? Why do certain political forces, such as the SPD, constantly repeat Kremlin propaganda narratives without particularly hiding their political biases?
A young person of Russian descent who was publishing on disinformation websites collaborated with Radim Fiala, a member of parliament from the “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (SPD) movement under Tomio Okamura. This young person once introduced the leader of the Public Affairs party, Vít Bárta, to the Pirate Party members. The aforementioned young man’s father is a former Soviet Army officer. What is the relationship between Okamura’s party and Putin’s Russia? This very much resembles a Russian nesting doll. You open one, and inside—another one.
One of the sources, a person who worked in one of the Czech intelligence agencies, has the answer to this question. He explained how Russian espionage is taking root in Czech politics.
“The interests of Russia in the Czech Republic are primarily political.” They do not intend to invade the Czech Republic with tanks, as they did in 1968. “As long as they have their people in politics, that’s enough to satisfy them,” said the former military officer, adding, “Their overall goal is to divide Europe through the migration crisis and destabilise the political system of EU countries with the help of nationalist parties.”” Additionally, the Visegrád Group, comprising Putin’s ally Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico, who represent Hungary and Slovakia, respectively, aims to erode Europe’s unity. ” Then the former intelligence officer began to recount specific instances when Russian intelligence agencies attempted to establish contacts with individuals close to politicians, including names, company titles, banks, and the mention of specific sums of money. The main goal of this “matryoshka hybrid war” is that the worse it is in Europe, the better for Putin. Like chess, they strategise several moves in advance, or several years into the future. Their goal is to place their people in positions of executive power, diplomacy, and parliament.
Following the October 2017 elections, Tomio Okamura’s “Freedom and Direct Democracy” party emerged as the fourth most influential party in the Czech Republic. The SPD is referred to as an extremist or national-populist group, and its policies are similar to those promoted by Russian propaganda. At that time, with the support of 10.64 percent of the voters, the SPD received 22 mandates in the House of Representatives (out of 200 deputies). In the European Parliament elections, however, the SPD, in coalition with the Tricolour, barely crossed the 5% threshold. However, back in 2017, its deputies made it into the leading committees, including the chairmen of some of them. Such participation in parliamentary power has never been seen before in any similar party (in the 1990s—the “Republicans” of Miroslav Sládek, and not so long ago—the first formation of Okamura, “Dawn” (Úsvit)). By the way, a few days after the parliamentary elections—on October 24, 2017—the Czech intelligence service BIS published its annual report. It described a variety of “active measures” practiced by the intelligence services of Putin’s Russia.
“Russian espionage has escalated from sowing discord in the West in a Cold War style to a higher level.” Just as Russian hackers create botnet networks within the internet (where special software hacks into other computers and networks in various ways), Russian intelligence services are essentially trying to create similar networks of Western politicians, whose mindset they “penetrate, comprehend, and seize”—this approach to cognitive influence fits perfectly into the entire system of hybrid warfare, writes BIS. And then recalls the words of the former Russian spy V. I. Trubnikov, who served as the first deputy minister of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation.
“Getting a classified document containing highly confidential information is not a problem today.” The main thing is to penetrate the brains of those who rule states. An intelligence officer must attain Michelangelo’s level. “The best intelligence officer is a Renaissance man,” said Trubnikov in June 2016, according to BIS sources.
In the next part, the BIS confirmed the information that was disclosed to the intelligence community in September 2017. “Russia’s interest was to influence the internal socio-political integrity of the Czech Republic, thereby weakening the EU and NATO.” “If we summarise Russian activity in recent years in cyberspace, propaganda, operations in Ukraine, Syria, the abduction of an Estonian intelligence officer from Estonia to Russia, and Russian border operations in Europe, it becomes clear that the EU and NATO are facing a Russian hybrid campaign,” reports the intelligence agency BIS.
Then, following the elections, the media began to examine the profiles of the newly elected legislators. It turned out that a number of SPD deputies were posting links on social media to websites that systematically spread disinformation. SPD deputy Radek Koten was a member of a Facebook group supporting a referendum on the Czech Republic’s withdrawal from the EU. He also subscribed to a page with the title “We intend to leave NATO and the EU; Russia is our true friend.” In November 2017, Koten declared that he was not a Russian agent. “I have no connections with Russia.” I’m not even a disinformation agent or a Russian spy. “The likelihood that, as the director of a company from some place called Zhdirets, I could have contacted Russian citizens, especially Mr. Putin, is negligible,” said Koten to the pro-Russian web outlet aktualne.cz.
Despite his activities, Koten was elected chairman of an important security committee. In addition, he became a member of the Commission for Monitoring Surveillance. Just like that, “some kind of director” from a provincial town.
At the same time, as already mentioned, he is not the only representative of the SPD who gained significant influence in the House of Representatives of that legislature. Tomio Okamura was the deputy chairman of the Chamber, and his right-hand man and deputy party chairman, Radim (not Petr) Fiala, headed the economic committee. Moreover, they held various positions in agencies related to state security. Miloslav Rozner headed the commission overseeing the National Security Bureau. Radovan Vich was the deputy chairman of the defence committee, a member of the security committee, and a member of the permanent commission for military intelligence supervision. Radek Rozvoral, deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary faction, was a member of the permanent committee overseeing the BIS intelligence service. Other deputies from the SPD held positions as members of the permanent commission for the supervision of the Financial Analytical Department (Zdeněk Podal) and the General Inspectorate of Security Corps (Lubomír Španěl), an agency investigating crimes committed by law enforcement personnel.
If we start to study the SPD in more detail, the question arises as follows: Is it possible for Okamura’s party to be under Russian influence, thereby posing a threat to the state, or has it been unfairly labelled as pro-Kremlin?
After several weeks of searching, it felt as if you were holding matryoshkas—Russian nest dolls. Within one narrative, another emerges, leading to the discovery of yet another remarkable figure. The narratives intricately interweave like painted nesting dolls, repeating the entire formula.
The smallest of the matryoshkas turned out to be Vít Bárta. The SPD’s history is precisely traced back to this former politician and former proprietor of the security agency ABL.
Matryoshka 1: Vít Bárta
Vít Bárta was the Minister of Transport in Petr Nečas’s government from June 2010 to April 2011. Until April 18, 2012, he also served as the head of the deputy faction of the “Public Affairs” party, behind which—as it turned out later—were some of the Prague “godfathers,” aiming to maintain power and influence. A series of scandals finally forced Barta to resign; he found himself under investigation and was convicted for handing out cash to his own deputies. However, the government never enforced the sentence and subsequently dismissed the accusations against Bart.
In May 2012, shortly after the verdict was announced, a disillusioned politician became involved with Sergey Pavlyuk, a young student from the Institute of Economics. By that time, Pavlyuk was twenty-one years old, and in online discussions he stood out with his intriguing ideas. “Today I was intrigued by an article about direct democracy in the blog of Sergey Pavlyuk, an economics student. “I am interested in your opinion on direct democracy,” Barta wrote to his fellow party members in “Public Affairs” in May 2012.
Matryoshka 2: Sergey Pavlyuk
Pavlyuk wrote in his blog about direct democracy, which would later become one of the main themes for Tomio Okamura.
“Why maintain the existing system, which only the politician is truly satisfied with, instead of moving towards direct democracy?” All generations of our politicians have consistently opposed the system, which a corrupt individual fears like fire. Why not resolve such matters through a referendum?
And in the next chapter, Pavlyuk states that “Referendums will not eradicate all forms of corruption and will not solve all systemic problems.” However, they will grant us respect. We will experience that our decisions are valuable and meaningful. “It’s not about electing someone who will then do whatever they want, especially if they are corrupted by some interested group.”
In August 2012, on one of the disinformation websites, Euportál.cz, Pavlyuk published a text titled “The EU: the Killer and Graveyard of Our Civilization.” Around the same time, Pavlyuk became an advisor to Vit Barta and began seeking support from other political parties as well. Later, Pavlyuk acted as a mediator in negotiations with the Pirate Party.
On November 19, 2012, Pavlyuk met with the deputy chairman of the Pirate Party, Mikuláš Ferjenčík. In a public forum, Ferjenk reported that it is mandatory for all party members to disclose their online interactions with legislators and entrepreneurs in a transparent manner. “A Russian individual, whose business card bears the title ‘Advisor to Dr. Vit Barta’—writes Feryenchik about Pavlyuk in the report.” And adds: “A young person, a third-year university student.”
“The current ‘Public Affairs’ seems to be a right-liberal party, close to the SSO (‘Party of Free Citizens’).” “Its goal is to put the current political leaders in prison,” Feryenchik describes his meeting with Pavlyuk. “He asked me to arrange for Ivan Bartosz (the chairman of the Czech Pirate Party) to meet with Vit Barta.”
On January 9, 2013, the leader of the Pirates, Ivan Bartosh, announced the meeting with Barta. “According to the communication with Barta’s assistant Sergey Pavlyuk, a meeting with Vit Barta will take place in his office on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 4:30 PM.” We decided to include myself and the deputy chairman, Jakub Michalek, in the meeting. “We intend to present our proposals for amendments to Law 106 (‘On Free Access to Information’), the initially defined topic,” reported Bartosz.
Ivan Bartosh later describes his meeting with Barta on the pirate forum as follows: “Although we were invited, Barta started with the question—why did we want to meet with him?” I objected, and Pavlyuk, who had initially addressed Mikulash Feriyenchik, explained to him what it was all about. Barta, unaware of the contents of Law 106, expressed his desire to receive our input. In the second part, he spoke about some coordination of anti-government organisations, his interaction with the “Holešov Appeal,” J. Bok, and others. He repeatedly used the expression “to uncork the bottle.” In this regard, I expressed myself quite sceptically—in Spain, hundreds of thousands protested, but nothing happened, and it’s unlikely that so many people will gather in Wenceslas Square… Conclusion: We have no objections to exchanging information or putting forward our proposals. “If someone is opposed to it, it is better not to join the event ‘to uncork the bottle’.”
Matryoshka 3: Radim Fiala
The negotiations with the Pirates were unsuccessful, and Barta finally united with Tomio Okamura. In 2013, he became the leader of the “Dawn” list in the Plzeň Region. But he was not elected.
However, Pavlyuk did not disappear from politics. He joined the movement “Dawn” and worked as an assistant to Deputy Radim Fiala.
Fiala was the second-most significant figure in the party after Okamura. And also one of the few who remained loyal to Okamura during the split of “Dawn” after the financial scandal in 2015. After that, Okamura and Fiala founded the party “Freedom and Direct Democracy.” Along with Fiala, Sergey Pavlyuk also joined it.
Pavlyuk maintained an online presence. For instance, during the presidential campaign, he expressed his opposition to Karl Schwarzenberg. On August 17, 2013, he published an article on the suspicious web platform ePortál.cz entitled “I claim that Karel Schwarzenberg is a Bolshevik.”
Deputy Radim Fiala and Pavlyuk clearly understood each other. They also maintained productive cooperation as business partners, especially during the period when the “Rassvet” movement split and Okamura and Fiala announced the creation of a new party, “Freedom and Direct Democracy.” (SPD).
Radim Fiala is a former politician of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), associated with the sphere of influence of the so-called “blue godfathers.” And even to this day, he maintains a relationship with the last surviving era of lobbying influence, Tomáš Grdlička.
A significant part of Fiala’s business operates in the Prostejov area, where he is from. His companies offer a wide range of cleaning and security services, as well as trade, property management, and cleaning product sales.
On July 16, 2015, Pavlyuk became a member of the board of the company IF Holding. He worked there until April 2016. During this same period, Pavlyuk was the director of the company Facility Professional (now IFP Servis). Radim Fiala, through his organisation B.S. Kings, was the legitimate owner of both companies.
It is important to note that in April 2015, as the SPD party was beginning to emerge, Venture Capitals, a new investor, invested in another Fiala’s company, Lifragin.
Ivo Cvitanovic, an Ostrava resident, has been Venture Capitals’ primary proprietor since 2009. However, it is fascinating who was the company’s director from 2011 to 2014. His name is Denis Kazantsev. This individual’s permanent residence is in Moscow. His name is listed in the Trade Register as a member of the management of Pilsen Steel, the former enterprise of the Škoda steelworks in Pilsen. This heir of the renowned Škoda factory, along with another leading enterprise, Škoda Kovárne, was sold in 2004. The two enterprises, as a single entity, became part of the Russian company OMZ. In 2007, the Plzeň companies united under one brand: Pilsen Steel. The owner is the Russian conglomerate United Pilsen. Igor Shamis, a Russian magnate, maintains complete control over this enterprise. Kazantsev served as Pilsen Steel’s director during the period when Shamis, the oligarch, was the company’s audit commission president. This controversial magnate is reputed to be associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to reports from Russian media.
However, it’s important to note that the “Russian trace” in this section of the story is merely indirect. The personnel coincidences related to Radim Fiala’s former company may be coincidental—just like the suspicious timing: as already mentioned, the new investor joined Fiala’s firm during the formation of the SPD party.
Sergey Pavlyuk denies that he was a significant driving force behind the SPD or a mediator in relations with Russia. “I was just an assistant to the deputy, not a member of the party.” He was not a member of the party. I was simply part of the technical staff. Why are you interested? “I’m just an ordinary guy who worked as an assistant and helped with social media issues,” Pavlyuk responds irritably to a series of questions. However, he clarifies that he ceased his role as Fiala’s assistant in the latter half of July and early August 2017. “I left politics and started doing business,” says Sergey Pavlyuk.
Deputy Fiala showed little interest in communicating. He just confirmed that he no longer maintains any relationship with Pavlyuk. He didn’t answer the other questions.
Matryoshka 4: Oleg Pavlyuk
Sergey Pavlyuk became a resident of the Czech Republic in 1997, when he was seven years old, after his parents moved here. His father’s name is Oleg Pavlyuk. He was born in July 1958 in the former USSR, and after relocating to the Czech Republic, he settled in Ostrava.
Oleg’s son, Sergey Pavlyuk, confirmed that both of his parents served in the military. “My father was an officer in the Soviet Army.” Mom also served in the Soviet Army. “But at the time when we moved to the Czech Republic, they were, of course, no longer serving in the Soviet army,” said Sergey Pavlyuk.
His father, Oleg, was a military journalist in the army. “We had a newspaper in each military district.”
Matryoshka 5: “Slavs” and the Kremlin
In May 2017, Sergey Pavlyuk founded the company Videoefekt, dedicated to the development and supervision of websites and social media profiles.
Pavlyuk develops presentations, makes videos, supervises online communication, and also monitors the Internet. “I’m doing well in business.” I manage social media for dozens of clients. “This is much more interesting,” asserts Sergey Pavlyuk, attempting to demonstrate that there is no longer any commonality with the SPD and politics.
Videoefekt claims that it has approximately twenty customers. Last year, Tomio Okamura partially owned a company, while Vit Barta’s family and an ex-MP from “Public Affairs” named Mykhailo Babak were also associated with a company.
An intriguing client of Videoetekt is the restaurant Dašické sklepy. Entrepreneurs from the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine own the same restaurant. Its owners belong to the board of the World Council of Russia; former leaders of this organisation have been accused by Ukraine of undermining the unity of the state in the interests of Putin’s Russia.
Once, in 2013, during a meeting in the town of Dašice, the Rusyns decided to vote for Zeman, as they believed that he did not differentiate between Russia and America. In November 2017, the owners of the Dašické sklepy restaurant were invited to join a delegation that Miloš Zeman took with him on an official trip to Russia.
The clients mentioned in Videoefekt are also active in the international non-governmental organisation “All-Slavic Committee,” which promotes “mutual assistance among Slavic and patriotic organisations, as well as Slavic peoples.” It’s not difficult to guess the sponsor.
An expert on the situation in Russia and a critic of the Putin regime, Alexey Kelin, a member of the Chechen Republic Government Council on National Minorities, told the magazine Reportér that a global Slavic congress is planned to be held in Prague. “Among other things, its goal includes the creation of a Union of Slavic States, to which, at a certain point under the direction of the Kremlin, a number of countries with Slavic populations should transition from the EU.” Kelin describes the implications that activists might have when dealing with former President Miloš Zeman and the SPD. Thank God, this attempt to implement the fascist ideology of the “Russian world” has failed.
Hence, can we suggest that Okamura’s party has been unfairly labelled as a pro-Kremlin? The above-described system of nested dolls, which includes SPD, is a system where disinformation websites, former Soviet officers—now “Czech” Russian entrepreneurs—are involved, which is at least peculiar. Their connections and sources of existence are exceedingly peculiar, if not outright evident.
