70,000 people demonstrated in Prague already last September on the principle that the war in Ukraine is not Czechia's war.
Also CZ, SK and HU are all maintaining their very close business ties with Russia while officially "looking for alternatives to Russian oil and gas." Kind of like how George Bush was "looking for WMDs" after the Iraq invasion and OJ was "looking for the real killer" after being acquitted in his ex-wife's murder.
https://www.politico.eu/article/czech-industry-russia-oil-ukraine-fuel-surplus-aid-sanctions/
I'm living next door to all these countries and have friends, family and business partners in one to all three of those countries.
Those countries have all had 30 years of authoritative capitalism (i.e. what is good for the US GDP is defined as "good") to compare with the previous 70 years of authoritative socialism (i.e. what is good for Moscow is defined as "good").
Certainly there were many bad things about the USSR. Few deny that. But they compare that to what is bad now and a significant portion of the people in those countries say it makes no sense to make an enemy of Russia.
2024 Russia is just another crony capitalist country like the US.
It is Western and particularly US projection that one country must "dominate" and all countries must choose whether they want to be dominated by the US or dominated by Russia, China, India or some other US adversary.
