Final Word from Monday, June 15, 2020

Hardly had the ink dried on Milan Chovanec's police reorganization in mid-2016 but the new NCOZ crime squad targeted a group of government and sports officials for fraud in awarding sports subsidies. One of those who goes on trial today, lawyer Miroslav Jansta, told Týden magazine in April 2019 that he made the mistake of underestimating the influence of Bison & Rose PR agency. It worked for Chovanec and had the education & sports minister at the time, Kateřina Valachová of ČSSD, on a leash, he said. She and Jiří Kejval of the Czech Olympic Committee were being used by Jiří Bis of Bison & Rose to take control of Czech sports, he said, and Bis wanted to discredit him. Ex-detective Robert Šlachta says on Page 223 of his new book that Chovanec even had his PR advisers attend top-level police meetings. When Jansta opposed the centralization of all sports funding under the Czech Olympic Committee, he and others were arrested. Not among them was Valachová. [ Czech Republic public relations Miloš Růžička interior minister ]