Czech news for March 7: V4 to protect Schengen area, diesel fuel arrives from US

Plzeňský Prazdroj increased beer sales in the Czech Republic last year after two years of Covid. It sold 7.3 million hectoliters of beer, almost 12 percent more year-on-year. Sales increased for all major brands, especially non-alcoholic Birell. The brewery has also seen an increase in people's interest in canned drinks it said in a press release. The year-on-year increase in domestic sales was also helped by Prazdroj's product innovations, especially last year's non-alcoholic Birell.

An English thoroughbred worth almost CZK 400,000 which is owned by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov according to the server Jezdci.cz, has been stolen from a stable in North Bohemia, a police spokesperson said. Kadyrov's stable has been registered with the Czech Jockey Club since 2012. Following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent EU sanctions, the property was among the assets frozen by the Czech government. The Chechen leader is one of the most powerful men in Russia and he keeps close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The police said an unknown offender had probably stolen the horse in the night from Friday to Saturday. The sixteen-year-old bay horse has a white star-shaped mark on its forehead and part of his right back leg is also white.

Thousands of Twitter users reported issues Monday, including users in the Czech Republic. According to the company, the problems were caused by an internal change with unintended consequences. American billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter last year for $44 billion (now CZK 970.3 billion). Critics say his arrival reflects on the functionality of the platform as well as on the regulation of its content. Some 150 users reported issues from the Czech Republic.

Czechia wants to buy an unspecified number of old Leopard 2 tanks from Switzerland, the French agency AFP has quoted Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd as saying Monday. Last week, a similar request for the purchase of Leopard 2s from the 1980s was made by Germany. If Switzerland's defense needs are met, there will be a number of tanks left, which the country can provide if its parliament declares them discarded, Amherd said.

Switzerland has banned the transfer of military materiel to countries in war; Germany assured the Swiss Defense Ministry that the tanks would not be re-exported to Ukraine. The same conditions would apply to the Czech Republic.

A rare baby rhinoceros of the two-horned black eastern subspecies, which is threatened with extinction, was born in the Safari Park Dvůr Králové through the weekend. The new cub is male. 

This is the third baby rhino of this species born in the last year. Exactly a year ago on March 4, a male was born and named Kyiv. The zoo is one of the largest and most successful rhino breeders in the world.

Protection of the outer border of the Schengen Area is the best protection against illegal migration, representatives of interior ministries of the Visegrad Four, comprised of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, agreed on Monday, Slovak Interior Minister Roman Mikulec told the press. Mikulec said that if the migration wave repeats, limitations at borders can be reimposed upon agreement.

Czech Deputy Interior Minister Radek Kana said after the meeting the V4 countries wanted to proceed collectively with regard to migration in the EU.

Last year, a surging number of migrants on the Western Balkan route from Serbia across Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic to Western Europe resulted in the Czech Republic's decision to impose checks on the border with Slovakia. They were lifted this year.

Drivers in the Czech Republic will be able to gas up with diesel from the US. The first trains with diesel produced in Louisiana arrived at the warehouses of state fuel distributor Čepro. Drivers will be able to start fueling their cars with it in three to six weeks, according to ČTK. The company now imports most of its fuel from Germany, Austria, and Poland.

The area at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje (Thaya) rivers encompassing the biggest extent of floodplain forests in Central Europe, will become a new landscape-protected area, the Environment Ministry announced.

The government pledged in its policy statement that Soutok will become a national park and that declaring the area in South Moravia a protected landscape is the first step towards this designation. At present, there are 26 protected landscape areas in the Czech Republic.