(dpa) - Russia in the era of outgoing President Vladimir Putin is a new-style dictatorship ruled by KGB spies and mobsters, former Czech president Vaclav Havel said in a Wednesday interview with Lidove Noviny daily.
"The era of president Putin brought a new type of dictatorship, dangerous in its inconspicuous fashion," said the Soviet-era dissident playwright turned Czech Republic's long-time post-communist president.
The Putin rule has been a combination of "the worse from both communism and capitalism," Havel said. "A grouping, simply said, of KGBs and mafiosi has ascended to power."
He said that Russia seems to have a difficulty to grasp that once lost territories are no longer under her control and now acts as if not knowing "where it begins and where it ends."
"Why are Russians so opposed to that radar dome in Brdy?" Havel said referring to a controversial US plan to place a radar site for its missile defence system in the Brdy military zone in the central Czech Republic.
"Of course they do not mind the dome. But they mind that it should be here, thus in a space whose security should be decided by them," he said.
The United States is in talks with the Czech Republic and Poland on placing missile-shield facilities on their soil, a plan that has infuriated Russia which sees the US system as a threat. Washington has so far failed to ease Moscow's concerns.