Democracy Digest: Central Europe Argues Over Different Vaccines for Different Reasons

With a lack of vaccine supply blunting the Czech vaccination drive, Zeman announced in March that he had contacted Russia and China to ask them to send vaccines. When the health and foreign ministers opposed using either Sputnik V or Sinopharm without EU approval, the president demanded their heads. Jan Blatny became the third health minister claimed by COVID-19 when he was fired earlier this month. Tomas Petricek - who was also busy fighting Zeman's efforts to hand a tender to expand the Czech nuclear power fleet to Moscow - was sacked as foreign minister on Monday.

The bid to replace Petricek has become an embarrassment for the Social Democrats (CSSD), the junior partner in the government which controls the ministry. Culture Minister Lubomir Zaoralek turned down the job, hinting as he did that Czech foreign policy has been hijacked by the president. The next nominee, Jakub Kulhanek, is a former employee of CEFC, the murky Chinese corporation whose CEO was an official adviser to Zeman until he disappeared in Beijing and his company was dismantled by the state.

In the meantime, CSSD head Jan Hamacek will temporarily head the Foreign Ministry. Losing little time to curry favour with Zeman, he'll travel to Moscow next week to discuss Sputnik V supplies. Just for good measure, he'll be taking along Andrej Danko - the nationalist Slovak politician who claims to have helped Igor Matovic order the Sputnik V shipment that ultimately led to his resignation as prime minister last month.

That contract signed earlier this year between former Slovak prime minister Matovic and the Russian Direct Investment Fund for a batch of 2 million Sputnik V continues to baffle the Slovak public as the terms of the controversial deal remain secret.