Czech foreign minister expects Russian government to block veteran status for 1968 soldiers

Czech foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek has said that he expects the Russian government to refuse a move by members of parliament to recognize soldiers who took part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia as war veterans. The move to give veteran status has been proposed by three Communist members of the Russian Duma. They said that the so-called operation Danube, the code name for the invasion, had been a pre-emptive move by the then Soviet Union to prevent Czechoslovakia moving into the Western camp during the Cold War. The Prague Spring reforms in Czechoslovakia had created unease in Moscow.