DCA Treaty with the USA

The last of our review is the inflection of the Czech-US Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) in the Czech disinformation community. The latter compares it to “August 1968”, calls it a “new occupation” and calls the Czech Minister of Defense a “communist ideologue” writing an “invitation letter”. The absurd accusations were soon refuted by the Czech military: “The DCA treaty itself will not lead to the construction of US military bases on the territory of the Czech Republic or to the permanent presence of US troops. Its purpose is to set general conditions for the possible presence of US troops in the Czech Republic, if both sides agree on it in the future and if it is approved by the Czech Republic in each individual case.”

Pro-Kremlin disinformation networks have sought to prevent the Czech Chamber of Deputies from approving the treaty, as BiS chief Michal Koudelka confirmed in late May. However, some experts on the spread of disinformation point to a parallel with 2007, when the construction of a US radar in Brdy was discussed, but ultimately did not happen due to opposition. The head of BiS calls the massive disinformation campaign at that time “the first Russian-led disinformation campaign in the Czech Republic.”