PRAGUE, November 21. /TASS/. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Friday he believed some statements of the republic's president, Milos Zeman, needed preliminary discussion.

The president should have discussed some of his stances with the government before making official statements, so that the Czech allies in NATO and the European Union did not feel uncertain, local media quoted the prime minister as saying on Friday during his four-day visit to the United States. US representatives recently expressed concern over a controversial stance some Czech representatives took on Ukraine and Russia.

Sobotka stressed that all the statements depended fully on the president, for the government had no influence on the president elected by direct voting of citizens.

Czech President Milos Zeman recently made a number of statements which disaccorded with the country’s official position regarding sanctions against Russia, the situation in Ukraine and the role of the US and the European Union in the Ukrainian crisis.

In particular, the president criticised anti-Russian sanctions, stressing that they should be cancelled for being superfluous and contradicting.

The sanctions lead to the opposite effect rather than expected. It is necessary to develop a dialogue, based on the principle of exchange of people, goods, capitals and information without any censorship, as civilized states do, he said.

Besides, Zeman admitted that Ukraine was currently in a state of civil war. Moreover, the president predicted that Ukraine might join the group of the world’s hot points and troubled states, such as Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Central African Republic.