The influence of the US-based ‘sovereign citizen’ movement is spreading to groups in the Czech Republic, including a mob of pensioners that stormed a Prague courtroom in May.
A mob of pensioners stormed the Prague Municipal Court in May as a former journalist appealed a suspended sentence for spreading fake news.
“We are the law!” police were told. As one protestor was arrested, officers were informed that they were “restricting the freedom of a… citizen of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic”.
And these are not the only such bizarre claims that Czech officials have faced in recent months.
Struggling to make sense of a sheaf of home-made documents, police at the Finance Ministry in March were told by a band of middle- and old-aged invaders to hand over all of the state’s assets. They should be happy, the interlopers added, that they let them keep their uniforms.
Elsewhere, a judge in a provincial city courtroom was warned of the consequences if he didn’t throw out the prosecution of a cannabis cultivator. And staff at an insurance company were bemused when a horde told them that their contracts were invalid.
These unruly elderly gangs are the Legitimate Creditors of the Czech Republic (Společenství legitimních věřitelů České republiky, or LVCR) They insist that the 1993 division of Czechoslovakia was invalid, and that this makes the Czech Republic, its institutions and all its officials illegitimate.
LVCR break down door at Prague Municipal Court after Jana Peterková enters the courtroom for her hearing, Prague, Czech Republic, on 30 May 2023. Photo: Twitter
Growing threat
The LVCR takes seriously its responsibility to fight back against these ‘imposters’ parading as police, judges and government, even if few others do.
“As citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic we are obliged to take control of all property,” a middle-aged woman informed staff and police at the Finance Ministry in March. “We have come to take possession of the assets that were stolen from it. The members of the provisional government of the Czechoslovak Republic are present.”
But although these antics may appear humorous, the LVCR is provoking concern as its actions start to descend into violence and it forms links with other factions from the country’s anti-system and conspiracy theory cohort.
The group hit the headlines when it helped break down the door at the Municipal Court in Prague in late May. The invasion forced the judge to adjourn hearing Jana Peterkova’s appeal against a two-year suspended sentence imposed on her for publishing a series of videos intended to spread alarm during the COVID-19 pandemic. In one, she claimed that NATO troops had been ordered to shoot unvaccinated children.
A week later, Peterkova herself led a similar mob to try to disrupt the trial of a pair of notorious disinformation and anti-vax activists for harassing a doctor and a biologist. This time, however, they were met by heavily armed police and ejected.
This short shrift illustrates a shift in the view of the authorities.
The Interior Ministry’s Centrum proti hybridnim hrozbam (Centre Against Hybrid Threats) has noted the influence of the US-based “sovereign citizen” movement (SCM) on groups in the Czech Republic, and warns of a growing security threat.
“Until now, manifestations of the SCM ideology in the Czech Republic were rarely recorded,” the counter-propaganda and counter-terrorism unit said. “But the situation has undergone a change in the last six months, and the attitudes associated with SCM now have considerable reach, especially as a result of the combined dissemination through quasi-media, social networks and the so-called anti-system influencers.”
The Security Information Service (BIS), Czechia’s counterintelligence agency, tells BIRN that it is now monitoring LVCR.
The FBI says it considers “sovereign-citizen extremists” who have spread across the US over the last 20 or so years “a domestic terrorist movement”.
Defined by a strongly anti-government stance based on conspiracy theories regarding the legitimacy of the state – often with racist and anti-Semitic strands attached – the loosely-affiliated movement claims to have the right to ignore laws requiring them to pay taxes or follow traffic laws.
“Paper and bureaucratic terrorism” is a typical tactic, the FBI noted. Activists often seek to overwhelm institutions with bizarre documents declaring sovereignty or to tie up officials in nonsensical arguments.
But there’s a much more serious side to the movement. More extreme activists refuse entirely to submit to state authority and have committed numerous fraud and forgery crimes. Violent incidents have also been recorded, including multiple murders.
Closer to home, murders have also been linked to Germany’s Reichsburger movement, which was implicated in a foiled coup attempt earlier this year.
German intelligence has warned that the group’s “willingness to use violence and the recourse to various conspiracy theories… form a dangerous connection”.
Jan Machacek, a central figure in the LVCR. Photo: Facebook / Jan Machacek
Czech flavours
For now, it seems that the LVCR – which did not respond to attempts by BIRN to make contact – is happily importing the non-violent elements of these international models.
“We are fighting for the restoration of the rule of law, which was stolen from the citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic,” the group’s website declares. “This land is ours! It is our home!”
And “bureaucratic terrorism”, it seems, is the main tactic that it’s using as it bids to reclaim that ‘birthright’.
Czech conspiracy theorists have been using it for a while. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, anti-vax activists encouraged people to jam the systems of hospitals and vaccination centres with requests and queries.
In the wake of the war in Ukraine, these disinformation networks and anti-system influencers appear to be starting to blend together with ideologues from the radical right and left and others dissatisfied with the country’s direction and their own situation.
They’ve been swift to latch onto narratives surrounding Prague’s support for refugees from the east, its military backing for Kyiv, and the economic hardships that the war has ushered in.
These narratives have been at the forefront of a series of large anti-government protests in Prague over the past year, suggesting that, for the time being at least, these events could be acting as an engine of consolidation for the various factions attending.
Peterkova’s busy schedule hints at the crossover. In the days after her twin court appearances, the former journalist and others attended a pro-Russian rally protesting the government’s recent signing of a defence cooperation treaty with Washington.
Linking up with the disinformation personality and her other causes has helped to raise the LVCR’s profile.
Although it’s still rather marginal, the LVCR is now the biggest group among a bevy of likeminded groups seeking to return to some mythological past, says Miroslav Mares, a professor of political science at Brno’s Masaryk University who specialises in terrorism and extremism. They have a particularly Czech flavour, he notes, with some even harking back to the country’s ancient pagan traditions as a basis for their claims of illegitimate governance.
“They stem from the pandemic, but now they’re growing and seeking media attention as disinformation personalities like Peterkova jump aboard,” he says.
Chairman of Law, Respect, Expertise (PRO) party Jindrich Rajchl attends an anti-government demonstration called ‘Czech Republic Against Poverty’ at Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czech Republic, 16 April 2023. EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK
False profits
The role of influencers such as Peterkova and others shouldn’t be underplayed.
The FBI defines three categories of SCM activist: those with a genuine anti-system ideology; those seeking a quick fix for economic difficulties; and those seeking to exploit the former two for personal gain.
The US domestic intelligence agency talks of numerous examples of large-scale fraud involving millions of dollars committed by SCM ‘gurus’ scalping gullible members of the community.
Figures prominent on the Czech disinformation scene – including Ladislav Vrabel, who led the anti-government protests last year – have been revealed to be seeking money from followers.
The central figure of LVCR is Jan Machacek, who claims he is owed compensation due to an erroneous arrest in 1994. Compound interest means that he is now owed billions of koruna, he asserts, making him the main “legitimate creditor” of the Czechoslovak Republic.
Having convinced his followers to join his action and make claims against the illegitimate state, Machacek has taken on the essence of a religious guru, and is often on the other end of the phone when the LVCR carry out their stunts.
Despite the spiritual zeal he inspires in some, and his police listing as a wanted and dangerous man, Machacek does not pose a serious threat to the state, reckons Mares. Nor, he adds, do the other leaders of Czechia’s political extremities, because despite pandemic and war, consolidation is highly unlikely.
The anti-system scene is by its nature fragmented, the political scientist asserts. The emphasis that the far-left and far-right place upon the need for a strong leader encourages competition for the role of figurehead, and reduces opportunities for cooperation.
Illustrating this, Tomio Okamura, leader of Freedom & Direct Democracy (SPD) – Czechia’s “establishment” far-right parliamentary party – remains wary of the anti-government protests. Despite the close ideological fit, he clearly has little interest in offering organiser Jindrich Rajchl’s rival PRO party any boost in challenging for his voter base.
“Okamura wants to remain the leader of Czechia’s radical opposition and its most visible figurehead in the mainstream,” Mares states.
Therefore, while the war and the cost-of-living crisis has brought supporters of the SPD and PRO together on the streets, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of the LVCR and even more radical factions, this is only likely to be temporary.
“Consolidation won’t happen,” Mares continues. “That’s illustrated by the swift turnover of leadership of the protests.”
Ten months ago, Ladislav Vrabel brought an estimated 70,000 onto Prague’s Wenceslas Square in the first demonstration. Now he’s rarely seen, save for the odd court appearance, while Rajchl receives most of the attention.
These groups also appear split by the involvement or not of outside influences. While several of the political parties on the extreme left and right are understood to have international links, there’s no evidence that the likes of the LVCR has attracted the attention of Russia or China, says Mares.
The BIS also believes that the troublemaking of the country’s ageing “sovereign citizens” is a purely domestic affair.
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