Alexandr Vondra

Who is Alexandr Vondra?

Alexandr "Saša" Vondra is a Czech politician, who currently serves as the Senator from Litoměřice and served on various ministerial positions from 2006 till 2012. Until the November 2012 he was also a Deputy Chairman of the Civic Democratic Party.

Vondra was the Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic from 2006 to 2007. On January 9, 2007, during the new government reshuffle, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, the first to hold this office. In administration of Petr Nečas he assumed position of nation's Minister of Defence. He was the most vocal proponent of building part of US missile defense system in Brdy, Czech Republic.

He was born in Prague. He graduated in geography from Charles University in Prague in 1984, receiving a Doctor in Natural Sciences degree one year later. In the mid-1980s he was a dissident and Charter 77 signatory. After organizing a demonstration in January 1989, Vondra was imprisoned for two months. In November 1989, while the Velvet Revolution was underway, he co-founded the Civic Forum.

In 1990-1992, Vondra was foreign policy advisor to President Václav Havel.