Prague- Former Czech president Vaclav Havel Tuesday urged the West to speak up to Russia despite its economic interests.

Speaking at a conference on Asia-Pacific Security Challenges in Prague, Havel said economic interests should not make the West "shy away from speaking about what it does not like about Russia's politics".

Havel has earlier criticized "Russian aggression" in Georgia, backing Tbilisi in a brief war with Moscow last month over breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Prague  - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to enable full access to information at the Beijing Olympics, according to an open letter released Thursday by a Czech human rights group.

The letter says that Olympians must learn about China's human rights record as the Olympic Charter puts sports at the service of promoting "a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity".

The signatories of the letter, released by the Prague-based Olympic Watch, also include South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Member of European Parliament Baroness Emma Nicholson and Chinese democratic activist Wei Jingsheng.