Activation of Russian influence in the political circles of Slovakia

Today, one of the most painful topics in the European and Euro-Atlantic communities remains Russia’s attempt to undermine Euro-Atlantic unity from within. For this, the Russian Federation spares neither funds nor opportunities.

One of the directions of Russian influence in Europe is the effort to bring pro-Russian forces to power. In particular, this is happening in Slovakia, where former Prime Minister R. Fico is trying to come to power again together with the Smer-SD party.

Starting from August 29, 2023, the pro-Russian rhetoric of the leader of the “Smer-SD” party, R. Fico, became significantly radicalized. Thus, in the city of Zvolen (SR), during the speech of R. Fico at the celebration of the Day of the Slovak People’s Uprising organized by representatives of the pro-Russian forces, new pro-Russian narratives were voiced, in particular about the “need to overcome Russophobia in Slovakia”, “oppression of Russian culture and the need to protect monuments” Pushkin’s Executioners”. Also, R. Fitso, who is not burdened by the framework of a statesman, directly expressed Russian narratives about the “need to end military support to Ukraine and block NATO accession”, etc.

The same rhetoric was used at meetings with voters on August 30, 2023 in the city of Topolchany (SR).

It is also worth noting that the official website of the Smer-SD party (https://www.strana-smer.sk/) has not been updated since August 22, 2023, and the maximum promotion and spread of pro-Russian narratives took place in the popular Slovakian social network Facebook. The official pages of R. Fico and the party “SMER-SD” have a significant number of interaction elements in the Slovak segment of Facebook (more than 765,000 and more than 425,000, respectively).

Also, the use of bot farms by the “SMER-SD” party to raise its rating is not excluded. In particular, this is evidenced by a significant number of identical positive comments under publications posted on the official pages of the Facebook social network

If R.Fico does not change his attitude towards the issue of joint resolution of European security issues, this may cause a negative reaction from the EU and NATO institutions, as well as Slovakia’s closest neighbors Poland and the Czech Republic, which in turn may have a negative impact on the Slovak economy.