Czechoslovakia: Czechs and Slovaks mark 30 years since Velvet Divorce

"This is my whole life. It's my daily bread." Filip Svrcek cast his eye along the snow-covered banks of the River Morava, watching the grey-green mass flowing towards a weir and hydroelectric power station from the 1930s, Qazet.az reports.

Filip, chairman of the Hodonin Rowing Club, has spent all of his 41 years within earshot of the river, which forms a long stretch of the Czech Republic's south-eastern border with Slovakia.

"Over there, that's Slovakia, but for us it's almost the same place," he said, explaining that his rowers follow the rules of river navigation rather than international law.

"We stray into the Slovak half of the river all the time. We don't need official permission - and I hope we never will," he went on.