Czech President Petr Pavel has partially walked back his call for a broad surveillance of Russians living in the West.
“Monitoring does not mean that every Russian citizen should be monitored,” Pavel told CNN Prima News on Sunday. “What it means is general monitoring of what is going on in that community and a response to behavioral risk factors.”
“It is a measure to ensure the safety of our citizens so we don’t have a repeat of what happened in Vrbetice,” the president said, referring to the 2014 explosions at two ammunition depots in the southeastern part of the country. The Czech authorities claimed that Russian agents were behind the blasts and expelled several Russian diplomats over the incident. Moscow has denied its involvement in the explosions.