Pavel Matocha

The Swiss investigation into alleged corruption during the privatization of Czech mining firm Mostecké uhelné společnost (MUS) has dominated the front pages of the Czech dailies in recent weeks. But most media have presented a fairytale according to which billions of crowns are waiting in Switzerland to be collected by the Czech government with the High Public Prosecutor’s Office in Prague interfering.

ČEZ's hitherto head of asset management, Pavel Cyrani, will become the new head of its strategy division, created to help the state-controlled power giant steer its way through ever greater uncertainty in the European and global power sector. The new division will help back up the blue sky piloting previously performed by trading director Alan Svoboda.

Gazprom’s no.2 Alexander Medvedev, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, President of the Russian Pension Fund Anton Drozdov, and Arkady Dvorkovich, advisor to the Russian president, are among the high-profile Russian politicians and business elite set to arrive in Prague in two weeks. The reason for their visit is neither business nor politics but for charity — on ice.

Lawyer Vladimír Bartoš and his client, convicted gunman Dušan Pintye, are demanding that state fuel distributor Čepro repay a Kč 254 million claim. Bartoš, who in August 2009 acquired Kč 127 million of Pintye’s claim, launched insolvency proceedings and presented a bankruptcy petition against the company. According to Čepro general director Jiří Borovec, the claim is based on false assertions. As expected, the court has rejected the Kč 127 million claim.