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Historian Timothy Snyder is a leading expert on Central and Eastern Europe and has written forcefully about the threat posed by Putin’s Russia and how ordinary people can stand up to tyranny. This week Professor Snyder has been giving lectures in Prague that packed auditoriums. During his visit, Czech Radio’s Lenka Kabrhelová discussed aspects of this country’s history – and present – with Professor Snyder.

Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas has been in Prague on Friday for talks with his Czech counterpart Andrej Babiš focused on digitisation, an area in which the Czech government is eager to step up its game. Consultants McKinsey have just published a study saying that accelerated digitisation could deliver up to a massive EUR 26 billion in additional Czech GDP by 2025. I asked Tomáš Karakolev, one of the authors of the study, what the Czech Republic should focus on if it wants to digitalise successfully.

In December 1988 Francois Mitterrand had breakfast with leading dissidents in Prague, providing a major shot in the arm to the Czechoslovak opposition. The Czech Foreign Ministry is now reported to be planning similar events on the 30th anniversary of Mitterrand’s gesture to demonstrate the country’s support for human rights.

After more than a week of political uncertainty regarding the fate of the Czech government, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Social Democrats, announced they would allow the government to survive a motion of no-confidence on Friday by abstaining from the vote. The decision was attacked by the opposition parties as “cowardly” and “self-serving”.

Elena Gorolová, a Roma social worker from the north Moravian city of Ostrava, has been included on an annual BBC list of 100 inspirational and influential women for 2018. The BBC highlighted Ms Gorolová’s campaign against forced sterilisation as well as her work to return institutionalised children to their birth families.

Jaromír Jágr is to be the public face of the ice hockey tournament at Beijing’s Winter Olympic Games in 2022. Jágr thus joins Canadian legend Wayne Gretzky among the personalities that are helping prepare and develop Chinese ice hockey. But it is not only on the level of personalities that cooperation is growing.

David Kraus’s administration building in Strančice won this year’s annual Czech architecture award. The building was praised by an international jury for its regional uniqueness and received the prize on Monday at a ceremony, in Prague’s Forum Karlín. The design, along with the winners of partner prizes, will be shown at special exhibitions in Prague and Brno.

The impact of global climate change in the Czech Republic can be felt more strongly than ever before, suggests a newly-released government report on the state of the Czech environment for the year 2017. One of the most pressing issues highlighted by the report is the alarming state of Czech forests.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš faces a test this week, with his government set to face a no-confidence vote on Friday. The vote follows a scandal involving Mr. Babiš’s son, who says he was forcibly taken to Crimea. The PM attempted to smooth over the scandal by visiting his son in Switzerland at the weekend – but the whole affair may not die away any time soon.

Czechs on Saturday marked the 29th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution that triggered the fall of communism in 1989. Traditionally the anniversary was marked by public gatherings, concerts, marches and cultural events, but this year public discontent with the political situation brought a tense atmosphere to the celebrations.