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【Global Network Report Reporter Suo Yanqi】 Integrated Reuters, the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and other media, the Czech capital Prague local time on Saturday (September 3) large-scale protests, about 70,000 people took to the streets to call on the ruling coalition to take more measures to control soaring energy prices, and voiced their opposition to the European Union and NATO.
Organizers of the protests included a number of "far-right and fringe political groups" from the Czech Republic who criticized a series of "Western-oriented" policies of the government led by Czech Prime Minister Fiala, calling on the Czech Republic to remain militarily neutral and take steps to rein in soaring energy prices, such as energy contracts with companies including Russian gas suppliers. Reuters said that according to police estimates, as of about 15:00 on the 3rd, the number of protesters was about 70,000.
"The purpose of our protest is to demand change, mainly to address the issue of energy prices (soaring), especially electricity prices and gas prices, which will destroy our economy this fall," Iri Havel, one of the organizers of the protest, told Czech local media. ABC said the protesters' demands also included the resignation of the current Czech ruling coalition.
Czech Prime Minister Fiala responded to the protests later on the 3rd, saying that the protests were initiated by "pro-Russian forces" and criticizing "their positions are close to extremes and contrary to the interests of the Czech Republic.", Reuters said. The Czech government, which currently holds the EU presidency, will convene an emergency meeting of EU countries next week to discuss solutions to the energy crisis, the ABC said.
On the 2nd of this month, the G7 finance ministers unanimously agreed to set a price cap on Russian oil. On the same day, Russian Energy Minister Shulidinov responded by saying that unilateral restrictions imposed by Western countries on Russia are triggering energy supply disruptions and leading to higher world energy prices.
"The Czech Republic (government) firmly supports Ukraine's 'invasion' against Russia," the ABC said. As for the continued arching fire of the situation in Ukraine by some countries in the United States and the West, the Russian side has repeatedly warned of criticism. According to Russia's TASS news agency, on the 10th of last month, Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy director of the Russian Presidential Office, said that NATO used Ukraine to "fight" with Russia and did not care about the lives of the Ukrainian people at all. Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zakharova also issued a statement saying that although NATO denied public participation in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, it actually sided with Ukraine and fought against Russia through Ukraine' hands. She also noted: "NATO is prolonging the conflict by continuing to supply weapons to Ukraine. ”