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Russian state television has refused to sell the rights to Czech and Slovak television to screen a controversial documentary about the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Czech News Agency has reported. Czech Television launched talks about buying rights to screen the documentary last month with a view to screening it on August 21, the anniversary of the invasion which ended reforms of the Prague Spring. The documentary sparked protests in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for taking the long time Soviet line that the invasion was ‘brotherly help’ aimed at preventing a NATO planned coup in former Czechoslovakia.

A campaign called Proti ztrátě paměti or Fighting Memory Loss, marking the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the communist regime, got underway at Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Thursday afternoon. The campaign, organised by the NGO People in Need since 2011, remembers the victims of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet troops in 1968. At the same time, it also marks 24 years since the departure of the armed Soviet army from Czechoslovakia. Various events, including film screenings, lectures and theatrical performances are scheduled to take place in Prague over the course of the next five days.

The Russian television lies in a documentary about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, President Miloš Zeman said at a press conference at the end of his visit to South Bohemia on Wednesday, adding that the invasion was a crime. The documentary, shown in May by the country’s public broadcaster Rossiya, claims that the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia was to protect the country against a planned attack by NATO troops. The Russian ambassador to Prague, Sergej Kiseljov, previously told the Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek that the film did not reflect the official stand of the Kremlin.

Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek summoned the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kiselyev, to Černín Palace on Monday, for urgent talks following two separate incidents, which have cast a fresh shadow over relations between the two countries. The first bone of contention was the revelation of a list last week of 89 EU politicians declared persona non grata in Russia – the list included four prominent Czechs, including TOP 90 chairman Karel Schwarzenberg. The second incident relates to the recent airing of a documentary in Russia, which, critics argue,

Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek on Monday summoned the Russian ambassador to Prague, Sergej Kiseljov, to explain the release of a Russian propaganda film defending the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. The documentary, shown in May by the country’s public broadcaster Rossiya, claims that the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia was to protect the country against a planned attack by NATO troops. Ambassador Kiseljoov said the film did not reflect the official stand of the Kremlin. The Czech foreign minister also protested against a list of 89 European politicians and diplomats, among them four Czechs, who have been banned entry to Russia on the grounds of allegedly having taken a pro-Ukrainian stance in the ongoing conflict between Kiev and Moscow.

Czech President Miloš Zeman is to award the Order of T.G. Masaryk to František Kriegel, a late Communist politician who was the only person to refuse to sign a document “legitimising” the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Also set to receive a high honour at Prague Castle on October 28, the anniversary of the country’s foundation, is a student who lost his life last year protecting a classmate from a school attack. The Medal for Heroism will go to Petr Vejvoda, who died at his school in Žďár nad Sázavou after a woman diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia began randomly attacking students.

A monument to senior Communist Vasil Bil’ak, who sent a letter of invitation to the USSR that was used to justify the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, was vandalised just hours after being unveiled in his Slovak hometown of Krajná Bystrá, the news site SME.sk reported. A Slovak artist and an associate daubed red paint on a bust of Bil’ak along with the word sviňa (pig/bastard). Bil’ak, who died a year ago, was charged with treason in 1991 but the case was dropped for lack of evidence.

When Jan Palach burned himself to death in January 1969 over the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, his radical protest was echoed by a number of young men in the Eastern Bloc. Among them was Eliyahu Rips, who put a match to his petrol-doused clothing in the Latvian capital Riga on April 13, 1969. But unlike the others, Rips survived, after passers-by put out the flames.

When I asked Paul Goldsmith by phone if he knew where Czech Radio was he said, I think so, but the last time I saw it it was on fire. At just 19 he had found himself in the middle of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia after deciding to visit Prague while travelling through Europe. A keen photographer, he captured those events in pictures that were soon picked up by the international media. Now, after being compiled for a book, his photos are on show at two concurrent exhibitions in Prague. When Goldsmith came to Czech Radio, we began by discussing

An exhibition of photographs taken by American Paul F. Goldsmith in Prague during the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia is being held in the city. Then a student, Goldsmith was touring Europe in August 1968 and found himself in Prague when the tanks rolled in; on leaving the country he gave his photographs to the AP news agency in West Germany and they were soon seen around the world. He is due to attend Tuesday evening’s opening at the café Krásný ztráty. The exhibition runs until November 9.