Russian propaganda ranks Czechia as Russia's fourth "enemy" in new rating

Vzglyad, a Russian outlet widely seen as a Kremlin propaganda mouthpiece, has published its latest ranking of countries "hostile" to Russia — and Czechia landed in fourth place with 65 out of a possible 100 points.

Italy topped the list with 80 points, earning the top spot after becoming, in August, "the only European country to detain a vessel from Russia's shadow fleet." Germany, Lithuania and Finland tied for second place with 75 points each, while the USA, Latvia and France shared third with 70 points apiece. Czechia took "bronze" alongside Romania, Poland, the UK and Canada — all scoring an identical 65 points.

Japan makes the list for the first time

Nearly all the countries in the top ten appear in the ranking regularly, but this time Japan was included for the first time. According to the outlet, the reason was Tokyo's "firm protest" over Vladimir Putin's visit to the island of Iturup.

Iturup belongs to the southern group of the Kuril Islands, which Japan regards as its "Northern Territories," while Moscow insists it is an integral part of Russia. The dispute has dragged on since 1945, when Soviet forces occupied Iturup and the neighboring islands.

How the scores are calculated — and why they're dropping

According to the outlet, the average index score fell by almost nine points, which the authors attribute to Europe allegedly sticking to a "basic minimum" — sanctions pressure and arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian political scientist Stanislav Tkachenko believes this "minimum" won't last much longer.

"Europeans are playing the long game. This is evidenced by the Readiness 2030 programme, which envisions maximizing the EU's defense capacity in the coming years. Brussels is essentially openly stating that it is building its own infrastructure for a long-term standoff with Moscow," said Tkachenko, whose country has been waging war against Ukraine for more than 12 years and has stepped up hybrid attacks on Europe in recent months.

Czechia regularly ranks in the top ten of this index. The list was first published back in November of last year, and even then Prague ranked fourth. In May, the country briefly dropped to dead last in the ranking.

The maximum score a country can receive is 100 points, and the higher the score, the more "hostile" the state is considered to be. As the outlet's editor, Evgeny Pozdnyakov, explains, the ranking is based on six criteria, the most important of which is military-political activity against Russia (worth up to 30 points), with sanctions pressure accounting for 20 points.

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Source: novinky.cz