Word: czeched
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...autobiographical. It's true that the play, entitled Leaving, and has echoes of Shakespeare's King Lear, tells the story of a top official leaving office -as former President Havel did in 2003. Some of its characters seem easily recognizable to those familiar with Czech politics. But Havel is not being disingenuous: The lead character, an aging politician named Vilem Rieger, is far too humorless to represent the former dissident who once scored Lou Reed an after-dinner gig at the White House. "I was interested in the more existential side of things," Havel told reporters in Prague this week...
...Havel may not be recounting his own life story, but he is clearly drawing on his experience as one of the leading figures of Eastern Europe's democratic transformation. Czech audiences are being offered a rare perspective on a pivotal period in eastern European history. So far, they appear to like what they see. The 71-year-old playwright attended the opening with his actress wife (who was originally cast in the play but dropped out at the last moment) and received a 10-minute standing ovation. He thanked the audience quickly and then rushed off stage...
...disappointments, generally seemed more inclined to compliment than to complain. Though Macedonia packed its bags in disgust, Georgia and Ukraine managed to put some positive spin on events. And though Washington was disappointed, there was success for the U.S. on its plans for a missile defense system after the Czech Republic agreed to allow a radar system to be built there...
...Whatever the state of their personal chemistry, then, Bush and Putin will engage each other over a widening chasm in the coming days. Besides NATO's expansion eastward, they also differ strongly over U.S. plans to deploy its missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland by 2012, ostensibly to intercept potential attacks from Iran. And Russia has been irked by the NATO powers' enabling of Kosovo's breakaway from Serbia, which Moscow deems illegal...
...Moscow has responded to the new alignments of its former satellites by using energy supplies for geopolitical leverage, and Putin threatened to aim nuclear missiles at Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Poland if they host the U.S. missile-defense system. Russia is also playing a cat-and-mouse game with Georgia: Early last month, Putin eased his blockade of the country and resumed air and sea transportation links, severed in October 2006 over the arrest of Russian personnel by the Georgians on suspicion of espionage. At the same time, Russia has invoked "the Kosovo precedent" to turn up the heat...