When the Czech government announced it was setting up an “anti-fake news” center earlier this year, the reaction was a sign of how the disinformation battle between East and West is increasingly looking like a new Cold War — with Prague yet again on the frontline.

From one side — a raucous band of pro-Kremlin, Czech language websites purveying falsehoods about migrants, the U.S. and Europe — came cries of censorship, with one site even talking about an “Internet Gestapo.”

From the other side — the West — came praise for the Czech authorities for taking a lead, with the Washington Post portentously hailing the center as a “new SWAT team for truth.”

But as Czechs go to the polls this weekend for parliamentary elections, pro-Russian platforms have been as energetic as ever, pumping out a steady stream of invented stories, conspiracy theories and spin. And the Center Against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats, as it is known officially, is struggling to prove itself, offering wider lessons for governments trying to fight the fake news war.