Agriculture Min. Marek Výborný managed within a 12-minute span on Czech TV’s OVM debate show yesterday to declare that we have a free market, to promote an EU ban on imports of grain and oilseed from Russia and Belarus, and to float the idea of engineering a reduction in Czech grain overproduction by fiddling with the farm subsidies. A ban on Russian grain would have a minimal impact on European prices, he said, and the goal would be to replace the cheap Russian cereals used as feed in parts of Europe with grain imports from Ukraine. Výborný and other Czech government officials are leaders in promoting sanctions but rarely look at the long-term implications. Burning bridges with Russia remains the European and Czech strategy, but it’s dependent on Ukraine winning a war that it isn’t winning. As one of the countries hurt most by the sanctions, it might be time for the CR to change its knee-jerk approach to imposing them and to start looking at a realistic cost-benefit analysis.

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