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Thirty years ago rock musician Michael Kocáb organized the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czech territory. Today he’s authored a petition to the Senate, asking senators to file a constitutional complaint against the Czech president for defending Russian interests rather than those of his own country.

There are two working versions of what happened in Vrbětice, one is that there was Russian involvement; the other is that it was caused by bad handling of the munitions, President Miloš Zeman said in a televised address on Sunday about how he views the 2014 explosion in the Czech munitions depo, which caused two deaths and billions of crowns in losses. The president’s long-anticipated address stirred strong criticism among experts, opposition politicians and even high ranking constitutional officials.

Scientists in Brno are developing miniature robots – no bigger than a virus and so invisible to the naked eye – capable of performing surgery. Due to their size, the so-called nanorobots can reach all but inaccessible places in the human body.

The Czech government has presented a six-stage plan for a gradual easing of coronavirus restrictions. If the epidemiological situation continues to develop favourably, it counts on the reopening of shops, markets and selected cultural facilities on May 3. The subsequent phases have thus far been left undated. Their activation is instead subject to the ratio of positive cases within the population.

A major crisis in relations between Prague and Moscow has reached a new plateau, with the Czech government expelling dozens of Russian Embassy staff following revelations of deadly Russian operations on Czech soil. Experts say the Kremlin is likely to retaliate further, while President Zeman’s first response is much-anticipated.

Most Czechs perceive Russia as a security threat to the country, suggests a survey conducted by the Median agency for Czech Radio. The survey was carried out at the start of the week, shortly after government officials informed about the involvement of Russian military intelligence at a munitions depot in Moravia, which left two people dead.

In a deepening diplomatic row with Russia, the Czech Republic is pushing Moscow to accept responsibility for what it has described as “an unprecedented act of terrorism on Czech soil” – a series of deadly blasts at an arms depot in Moravia. Following a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats, Prague gave Moscow less than 24 hours to retract its decision or face further expulsions which would aim to bring the embassies of the two countries on an equal footing –even if it meant starting from scratch.

This year’s Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, which honours outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights, has been awarded to Saudi feminist activist Loujain Al-Hathloul. It was awarded at an online session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Monday.

Villages located in the vicinity of the Vrbětice munitions depot, where life was severely disrupted by the deadly 2014 blasts, have been following developments with shock and anger. The locals are asking why they were not properly protected against the danger of a terrorist attack and are calling on the government to ensure that they receive compensation for the damage caused.

The Czech government issued a resolution on Monday which excludes the Russian state corporation Rosatom from the Dukovany power plant tender. The decision comes in the aftermath of recently surfaced evidence that suggests Russia’s military intelligence was involved in the 2014 explosion at the munitions storage facility in Vrbětice.