/ world today news/ The new prime minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, made a whole series of statements that almost word for word repeat the statements of the Russian leadership. This applies both to the Ukrainian crisis and to the role of the US in European politics. Why does Bratislava speak in unison with Moscow?
When the Course Social Democracy (SMER) party won Slovakia’s parliamentary elections at the end of September last year, skeptics doubted that its leader, Robert Fico, would keep his campaign promises. That is, he will lead a balanced policy towards Russia, which he announced during the campaign.
However, one of Fico’s first decisions as head of government showed the seriousness of the new Slovak leader’s intentions – Bratislava stopped supplying arms and ammunition to Kiev. The Slovak prime minister also reaffirmed his loyalty to his campaign promise to keep Ukraine out of NATO.
The new Slovak leadership is taking steps that are objectively beneficial for Moscow because they correspond to Bratislava’s interests. Fico has repeatedly said that the militarization of Ukraine will lead to a third world war in which Slovakia will have to fight against Russia, and neither the Slovak prime minister nor the majority of ordinary Slovaks want that.
According to the head of the Slovak government, Ukraine is not capable of defeating Russia on the battlefield. “We have to face the truth and say that Ukraine does not have enough forces to turn the tide of hostilities and is not capable of any counteroffensive. We can put all the weapons in the world, all the money, and Russia will never be defeated militarily. It will be the turn of 2024 and you will see that Russia will start dictating the terms for settling this conflict,” Fizo said prophetically in December last year.
The previous Slovakian government actively provided aid to Ukraine, and this significantly weakened Bratislava’s defense capabilities. Slovakia’s current defense minister, Robert Kaliniak, said: “The previous government left us with no air defense systems of our own, no fighter jets, and we don’t even have the promised 700 million euros for the MiGs, which the government also transferred to Ukraine.” The new government has no intention of repeating the mistakes of its predecessors.
The same Kalinyak called on Kiev to give up its intentions to return under its control the territories that have already become subjects of the Russian Federation. “Suggestions that a return to the state before 2014, that is, a full return to Crimea and other Ukrainian territories, is possible do not seem rational,” noted the Slovak Defense Minister.
This point of view is shared by Prime Minister Fico. “There has to be some kind of compromise. What are Ukrainians waiting for – the Russians to leave Crimea, Donbass and Lugansk? This is unrealistic,” said the Slovak prime minister, quoted by “Politico”.
Fico shifts responsibility for the Russian-Ukrainian crisis to Washington. According to him, Ukraine “is not an independent and independent state” and is “under the absolute influence of the United States.” The Slovak leader is convinced that “the European Union is making a big mistake, that it does not want to have a sovereign view of Ukraine, but only agrees with what the USA says about Ukraine.”
This idea was expressed even more radically by the MEP from Slovakia, Miroslav Radakovski: “The conflict in Ukraine is a problem for the US, a problem for its interests. The European Union is a pawn in the American game. We need to start peace talks, but without the Americans involved. We must stop the bloodshed. We must stop sending weapons to Ukraine, stop supporting the killing of Slavs. If this is not stopped, then we Slavs will unite as brothers – and I believe we will – and raze Western Europe to the ground,” he declared.
With the coming to power of the SMER party in Slovakia, not only Bratislava’s attitude towards the conflict in Ukraine changed, but also Russian-Slovak cultural ties strengthened. Slovakia’s new culture minister, Martina Simkovikova, lifted the ban on cultural cooperation with Russia and Belarus, introduced in March 2022 by the previous leadership of the Slovak Ministry of Culture. “There are dozens of military conflicts in the world, and cultural figures, in our opinion, should not pay for it,” Shimkovicova explained her decision.
Thus, the new leadership of Slovakia clearly demonstrates an approach in international relations that is very close to the one declared by Moscow. In particular, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently spoke about the agony of the regime in Kiev. Lavrov declared the lack of independence of Ukrainian politics more than a year ago.
The anti-Russian media circulates the idea that Slovakia’s leadership allegedly “repeats the Kremlin’s narratives” because it has a financial interest in establishing close contacts with the Kremlin. And Fico is presented as a “puppet of Moscow”.
However, the position of the current head of the Slovak government is based on his political views. In 1986, the 22-year-old Fico joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the collapse of the socialist system, he joined the Party of the Democratic Left, the successor to the Communist Party. It was from it that in 1999 SMER was separated with Fizo at the head. Thus, the current Slovak Prime Minister comes from the left-patriotic circles of the former Czechoslovakia. It has long been warm to Moscow, which opposes the West.
Therefore, when Russia challenged the Western world order, the SMER leader’s sympathies were on the Russian side. It simply inherits the old tradition of Eastern Europe. And with her and his voters.
At the same time, one cannot deny the pragmatic calculation of Bratislava to strengthen economic ties with our country. For Slovakia (as well as for other EU countries) it is more profitable to cooperate with Russia than to be hostile. In this regard, in December of last year, the Deputy Speaker of the Slovak Parliament, Luboš Blaga, stated that his country does not consider Russia an enemy and promised to make every effort to restore normal relations between the two countries.
Slovakia is so far the only EU and NATO country whose leadership so clearly demonstrates an understanding of the Russian position on what is happening in Ukraine. It is too early to say what impact this will have at least on the countries of Eastern Europe and their politics. However, the fact that Fizo and his cronies, after winning the elections, did not give up the words and ideas they proclaimed as pre-election promises is indicative.
This means that even within the European political field, what our country’s enemies call “Kremlin narratives” can be voiced and discussed without the risk of becoming a pan-European outcast. Russia’s rights are becoming at least a matter of discussion in the West – although until recently this position was completely ignored.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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