Final Word from Friday, May 6, 2005
Film director Václav Marhoul told F1 radio that he's expecting 200,000 to 500,000 people to turn out for a military parade and air show at 10am on Sun. at Prague's Letná field. It will also be a salute to World War II veterans from all the victorious powers. Russian Amb. Alexei Fedotov complained in Právo today that there's been an effort to reduce the role of the Soviet Union in defeating Nazism. Václav Klaus said a similar thing last week in Ostrava. Without the Soviets, he suggested, the Czechs probably wouldn't exist today as a nation. Regardless of what came later, Klaus said, Czechs should remember that the Soviet Union played a key role in liberating them. As commander-in-chief of the Czech army, Klaus is the patron of the event on Sun. As such, we should perhaps expect more pro-Russian talk than we've been used to hearing over the past 15 years. [Czech Republic Czechoslovakia USSR ambassador Germany]