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October 13, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
cal fight... a few days ahead of an election.”
Babis has previously conceded he had meet- ings with StB officers in the former Czechoslo- vakia, but says he only ever discussed the eco- nomic interests of the country. Having cleared his name after launching a lawsuit, he now faces the prospect of having to fight another lawsuit to again obtain a favourable verdict.
Quiet recapitalisation of Agrofert
After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 which toppled Czechoslovak communism, Babis went on to reside in the newly-created Czech Republic from 1993, where he built up the agrochemicals, food- stuffs (and now also media) empire of Agrofert. His enemies say Babis has never satisfactorily explained how he quietly recapitalised Agrofert using an obscure Swiss entity. On the campaign trail, Babis insists that his business practices are entirely clean and that a big priority for ANO in government - where it is currently the main
junior partner to the Social Democrats (CSSD) - is dismantling business, political and organ- ised crime networks that facilitate corruption.
Another concern for Babis' critics is his close- ness to Czech President Milos Zeman who often serves as an ally of the Kremlin. On Oc- tober 11, Zeman told the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg that Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea re- gion is a “fait accompli” and that there should now be dialogue over Russian compensation for Ukraine. That sparked a row with the Czech Republic's CSSD prime minister, Bohuslav So- botka, who responded that the head of state "had no mandate" to make such remarks. It also reminded some observers that a country led
by a Prime Minister Babis and President Ze- man could very much come under the sway of Vladimir Putin's Russia. Other critics reject that analysis, saying that any shift of alliances away from the West would be far more moderate.
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