Jan Šinágl angažovaný občan, nezávislý publicista

Václav Havel: „One inherited disadvantage of democracy is that to those who are devoted to it places limit of action, but those that disrespect it are able to do almost anything.”      

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Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State: "The lesson of recent history is that once the Russians enter your house, it's sometimes very hard to get them out."

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I attach for discussion the opinion of a Ukrainian journalist in Kiev on the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus gave up their nuclear weapons to the RF in 1996. The Budapest Memorandum of December 5, 1994 is the only agreement in which Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus - the 3rd former nuclear powers - gave up their nuclear weapons in exchange for their security back in 1996. This anniversary took place without any media coverage. The memorandum could be a model for other states such as Iran, North Korea, etc.

However, a letter from a journalist in Kiev shows that the Memorandum is not, at the moment, a topic in Ukraine. The Budapest Memorandum, as a guarantee of the territorial integrity of states in return for the abolition of nuclear weapons, should be a topic not only for NATO, including the US, but for Swiss diplomacy and also a solution for Iran and North Korea.

Why is the Budapest Memorandum not a topic if there is nothing better?

Roman Joch: Athletes of the West, now is not the time to be silent. You will be shown whether you are worthy of the West or whether you will be bought, put on a gold muzzle and cower before the red mandarin who thinks he has the "Mandate of Heaven".

The athletes involved thus willingly play the role of "useful idiot". Can anyone imagine the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin taking place at a time when concentration camps already existed on German soil and when the extermination of the Jews had already begun? What does that say about the moral state of the world?

The Chinese have already banned foreign visitors. At least the politicians will not attend, except for the obedient President of the Czech Republic, Zeman, who, as the only President of a European Union country, would attend if his health permitted it. This is a question for the athletes to answer for themselves and to settle with their consciences, including the athletes' entourage. China has banned them from talking about basic human rights under threat of punishment. Will they be as civically brave as Novak Djokovic? Of course not. Fame and money is an adversary that no one wants to defeat in their own interest. Let us hope that there will be a few brave athletes who will find it in themselves to behave as the brave gymnast Věra Čáslavská did at the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968? I was honoured to be able to accompany and support her in the last years of her life.