Yesterday we wrote that something’s got to give, and then it did. Pavel Tykač of Sev.en Energy, who is one of the top 10 richest Czechs, told CNN Prima News last night that a terribly large number of people – esp. small children and seniors – would not survive if the Russian natural gas were cut off. It would bring such a dramatic change to society that the Velvet Revolution would seem like a minor event, he said. If the gas were halted, he predicted, so would likely be the oil, and industry would come to a halt, as would the healthcare system, the delivery of goods to stores and the cultivation and harvest of the fields, resulting in a collapse of the economy and social unrest. Tykač’s appearance on television could be seen by the Czech business elite as a signal to begin defending national interests more vocally, even at the cost of alienating international partners. How it plays out now will depend largely on what the oligarch-controlled media – TV Nova, TV Prima, MFD, Blesk – decide to do.

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