Prague - Current president of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus was approached by the military intelligence in the era of Communist Czechoslovakia.

Aktuálně.cz has found a document in the Czech Security Services Archive which says that the Communist military intelligence tried to recruit the 22-year-old Klaus, who just started his military service, as a collaborator.

The intelligence approached Klaus for the first time in January 1963, and for the last time in August 1964 when it suspended the action since it considered Klaus unsuitable for a cooperation - because of his "significant linkage to (his) sport activity, girl and employment."

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According to Prokop Tomek, the Military History Institute's expert on military intelligence, the documents do not show that Klaus was involved with the intelligence in any way.

The Communist military intelligence, a part of the army, was active mostly abroad, and did not have a reputation of being violent.

Violence was rather a main method of the Communist secret police, which focused on Klaus too. Its last file on Klaus was started in April 1988, 20 months before the regime fell.

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An informant

The military intelligence used an informant who knew Klaus from basketball games.

According to the document, Klaus appeared to the informant "to be very smart, clever and gifted, with natural intelligence. Precisely because of these attributes he is sometimes considered 'arrogant', he has a tendency to feel superior to others." Also, the document notes that Klaus was very good in organizing things and persuading others, however was prone to underestimating other people.

In November 1963, an "informative interview" with Klaus took place. Eventually, the military service ended its effort at recruiting Klaus.

Tomek considers the approach to be a rather routine one, however he adds that there had to be something about Klaus that was interesting for the intelligence. "In this case, the interest ended in the very introduction phase. There was no discussion about concrete aspects of a possible cooperation," Tomek said to Aktuálně.cz.

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"They were interested in intelligent people, but only those that did not stand out too much. People who were reliable and controllable. If somebody was loudly expressing his interest in such a work, he was rather suspicious," Tomek explained.

The Office of the President confirmed that Klaus was really approached by the Communist service, and pointed to a newspaper interview Klaus gave in which he spoke about the meeting.

The document Aktuálně.cz has acquired from the Archive of Security Forces is in accord with the story Klaus told to the Czech Lidové noviny daily. In the interview he explained that he used his interest in basketball, which he was playing professionally at the time, as an excuse to refuse the offer. According to the document, this was really one of the main reasons why the intelligence lost interest in Klaus.