Slovakia proved democracy can be bought with fake news, Martin Sklenar reveals
From: Euromaiden Press BY ALYA SHANDRA
When Martin Sklenar served as Slovakia’s defense minister, his government did something unusual: they shut down Russian disinformation outlets spreading through Slovak society. The polls immediately shifted. Support for the Russian narrative dropped.
Then politics changed. The outlets returned. So did the pro-Russian sentiment.
It’s a real-time case study of how Russia captures Western democracies – with measurable results. Sklenar watched it happen from the inside.
Now Slovakia’s government, led by Robert Fico, pushes “peace” messaging that echoes Russian talking points. The country that once strongly supported Ukraine has flipped. And Sklenar, who served during the transition, knows exactly how Russia pulled it off.
“It’s incomprehensible that Slovaks would forget that in 1968 the Soviet Union invaded Slovakia,” he tells Euromaidan Press at the Globsec Forum in Prague. But it happened: Russia found another angle—focusing on the 1945 liberation instead of the 1968 invasion, claiming credit for the Red Army’s multinational sacrifice.
The formula works. Slovakia is proof. And Sklenar warns it’s spreading across Central Europe as populists promise to end the war quickly by giving Russia what it wants.
Voice of Ukraine 