Václav Havel slams Moscow’s “imperial ambitions”

The former Czech president Václav Havel has denounced what he called Moscow’s “imperial ambitions”. Speaking at the Trutnov Open Air Music Festival over the weekend, Mr. Havel noted that while the Putin regime was more sophisticated than its predecessors of the communist era, present-day Russia still appeared not to know “where it begins and where it ends”. The former Czech president said the international community should make its position on Georgia and other matters quite clear and stop treating Russia with restraint and caution. He received loud applause from the hundreds of young festival-goers who attended this year’s Trutnov festival, originally known as “the Woodstock of the East".