An Ardent Putin Fan Is Chasing Czech Re-Election

The Czech Republic is deciding this month whether to keep or replace as its president one of Europe’s most vocal supporters of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Milos Zeman -- also an early fan of U.S. President Donald Trump -- is seeking a second term in a runoff election on Jan. 26-27. Over the past five years, Zeman has stretched the boundaries of the largely ceremonial Czech presidency. He’s running neck-and-neck with challenger Jiri Drahos, a pro-European Union chemistry professor and head of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Zeman has been one of the most prominent voices in Europe calling for the scrapping of Western sanctions against Russia. During the Ukrainian conflict, he referred to the crisis as “something like the flu” and later angered the government in Kiev by saying Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula was "fait accompli" and Ukraine should seek a settlement with Moscow. In 2014, he was the only EU leader to attend a conference in Rhodes, Greece, organized by Vladimir Yakunin, one of Putin’s close former allies who was put on an asset-freeze and visa-ban blacklist over the conflict.