Bogeymen and the Minister

In recent days, our Foreign Minister Petr Macinka stepped onto a stage which may not exactly represent the world, but certainly has repercussions beyond our borders. Was granting an interview to an anonymous person wearing a mask simply a naïve decision? Or was it a calculated move by the minister to raise the profile of himself and the Motorists ahead of the municipal and Senate elections?

I believe it was neither.

There is a third possibility, one I would rather leave unspoken.

In any case, if the minister simply never refuses an interview and accepts every invitation he receives, then hats off to him. But that reminds me more of unsuccessful politicians who turn up anywhere where at least two people have gathered, simply so they can deliver their ramblings.

Surely that cannot describe a foreign minister who is not an unsuccessful politician. He should therefore think very carefully about where he chooses to turn up, lest the result become an embarrassment of international proportions.

Thomas Paukner — an influencer and investigative author — with whom the minister conducted the interview is, after all, rather strong stuff even for an ordinary citizen, particularly when there are substantially more serious and, in my opinion, transparently documented problems that deserve attention.

On the very same day that the nature of Minister Macinka’s interview came to light, he summoned Russia’s ambassador in Prague, Anna Ponomaryova.

He called her onto the diplomatic “carpet” over a drone incident at Leipzig Airport. The drone was allegedly Russian, according to members of Germany’s political establishment — although, I should stress, there was no unanimous position on the matter.

Without sufficient evidence having been presented to establish that the drone was indeed Russian, our minister nevertheless described the German findings as extremely serious and convincing and expressed solidarity with Germany.

It was also stated that, in addition to information supplied by Germany, the Czech Republic possessed its own intelligence findings.

Regarding this serious incident, the minister demanded an explanation from the Russian ambassador.

He subsequently rejected the explanation she provided.

I believe that instead of spending his time sitting down with a “bogeyman” — described in public sources as a masked man — the minister should be devoting his attention thoroughly to what is happening around us.

It is no coincidence that the First World War was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, while the Second World War was initiated by Germany under Hitler.

That is precisely why we must be all the more rigorous in verifying reports that could contribute to the escalation of the already disgraceful conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Perhaps experts could offer their views as well — our president, for example, given his military background and his knowledge of Russian military capabilities, or specialists in weapons and military technology.

They might perhaps add:

“If the Russians had genuinely wanted to blow up an aircraft loaded with weapons travelling from Germany to Ukraine, thereby endangering the inhabitants of part of Leipzig, then that drone would have exploded. After all, look at what they did to intelligence commanders in Kyiv.”

There is only one disadvantage — or perhaps advantage — to a deliberately provoked nuclear conflict, a Third World War.

Humanity would no longer be in a position to determine who had directed the provocation.

So instead of raising his profile alongside a “bogeyman”, Minister Macinka should devote himself thoroughly to foreign policy and international events, so that one day we do not find ourselves astonished by what we helped to bring about.

I am surely not the only person who would be interested to know what diplomatic note Ambassador Anna Ponomaryova subsequently sent to Moscow.

And how seriously she took the minister’s words when, at roughly the same time, not only Czech social networks and websites were overflowing with reports about the interview between the “bogeyman” and the minister.

Ing. Alena Vitásková
Writer and commentator

Prague, 6 September 2026