EU state sentences teacher for 'pro-Russian' views | 30 May 2025 | A Czech court has handed a former teacher a seven-month suspended sentence for expressing pro-Russian views during a school lesson, local media reported on Thursday. Martina Bednarova was also banned from teaching for three years and ordered to complete a media literacy course, according to the Ceska Justice news portal. The incident occurred in April 2022, shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, during a Czech language lesson at an elementary school in Prague. According to media reports, Bednarova described Russia's military action of Ukraine as a "justified way of resolving the situation" and cast doubt on Czech television's coverage. She also said "Nazi Ukrainian groups" had been killing Russians since 2014, apparently referring to Ukrainian nationalist battalions such as Azov, which Moscow has accused of committing atrocities against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, and which the Kiev authorities dispute.