Kansallissosialisti on yhtä sosialisti kuin muurahaiskarhu on karhu.Ei ole äärioikeistolainen, on sosialisti, kansallissosialisti. Vähän niinkuin suomalaiset solisariratit punainen viiva teoksessa
Ukrainan konflikti/sota
Näillä ohjuksilla ei kuitenkaan varmaan voi oikein iskeä kuin rannikolle? Lentävät loppuvaiheessa niin matalalla, että osuu helposti maastoon ja esteisiin sisämaassa?Klikkijuttuja?
Venäjä on pommittanut ukrainalaista satamakaupunki Odessaa useana peräkkäisenä yönä. Ukrainan ilmatorjunnalle erityisesti Oniks-risteilyohjukset ovat tuoneet haasteita.
Ilta-Sanomien mukaan ohjus on suunniteltu meritaisteluun. Oniks lentää 3000 km/h, kohdetta lähestyessään 2,6-kertaista valonnopeutta. Sen aiheuttama jälki on karua, sillä ohjus on suunniteltu sotalaivojen tuhoamiseen.
IS: Venäjä otti käyttöönsä ohjuksen, joka on Ukrainan ilmapuolustuksen painajainen - Suomenmaa.fi
Venäjä on pommittanut ukrainalaista satamakaupunki Odessaa useana peräkkäisenä yönä. Ukrainan ilmatorjunnalle erityisesti Oniks-risteilyohjukset...www.suomenmaa.fi
IT-nörtti
Luutnantti
Tarkkaan pitää tähdätä, kun jutussa mainitulla loppunopeudella ohjus ohittaa Marsin kiertoradan reilun minuutin kuluttua loppukiihdytyksen alkamisesta. Kuu jää taakse n 500 millisekunnin kohdalla.
Miten kummassa alkaa Saksa taas tuntua vähän vähemmän paskalta maalta?
Vastaan itselleni kysymyksellä: pääministeriä vastaava liittokansleri Scholtz on sysätty syrjään Ukraina-asiasta kokonaan ja vastuu on annettu haukoille puolustusministeri Boris Pistoriukselle ja ulkoministeri Annalena Baerbockille?
Edellinen puolustusministeri Christine Lambrecht olikin pohjanoteeraus..
ido59
Majuri
Jos Euroopassa olisi tahto, muuttuisi osa teollisuudesta viikoissa, kuukausissa sotatarvikemoodiin. Mutta ei. Lyhytnäköinen 'säästö' Ukrainan tukemisessa saattaa maksaa tavalla tai toisella ryssän kanssa tulevaisuudessa paljon enemmän. Vaikka Ukrainan eettisen auttamisvelvollisuuden ohittaisikin.
Euroopan laajuisesti jyvittäen riittävän runsas tuki ei edes olisi raskas taloudellinen rasite.
Klikkijuttuja?
lähestyessään 2,6-kertaista valonnopeutta
Arvasin ennen linkin avaamista: naistoimittaja. Heistä monelle fysikaaliset ilmiöt, käsitteet ja mittayksiköt ovat harmaata mystiikkaa. Siihen kun vielä liittyy sotakalusto, niin ohjuksetkin lentävät yli valonnopeuden
Harvapartio
Eversti
Kyllä tämän pelottelun tarkoitus on varmaan vaan sitoa mahdollisimman paljon joukkoja pois vastahyökkäyksestä, ei ne kyllä niin hulluja ole että lähtee pohjoisesta yrittämään kun ei Venäjäkään siinä onnistunut, mutta huomioon se pitää silti ottaa ja siinä juuri lienee pointtikin. Venäjä saattaa koittaa vaatia niiltä vähintään jotain joukkojen keskittämistä tuonne alueelle sitomaan lisää Ukrainan porukkaa.
5900GLX
Alikersantti
No otsikko kyllä ei kerro niin. Tarkistin otsikon tavaamalla useampaan kertaan. Eikä kerro kyllä itse sisältökään niinkuin ilmoitat. Aivan asiallinen ja laadukas uutinen on. "Venäjän hyökkäyssodan alkamisen jälkeen Suomesta on lähtenyt Ukrainan sota-alueelle vapaaehtoisia taistelijoita, joiden joukossa on Supon mukaan ollut _yksittäisiä_ äärioikeistolaisia." Ymmärrän että tunteet kuohuu herkästä aiheesta, mutta ei vedätetä toisia tai luoda mielikuvia niinkuin naapurissa tehdään. Ei tästä sen enempää..
Antares
Respected Leader
Ainakin Lukashenkolla on selvä huoli, ettei halua tätä päätöstä omiin nimiinsä vaan leimauttaa sen "parlamentissa". Kirjoittivat tuohon alkuperäiseen twiittiin vastanneessa twiitissä että mielenkiintoisesti lakimuutos astui voimaan / teksti tuli julkiseksi samaan aikaan kun Lukashenko lensi Venäjälle tapaamaan Putinia:
Lukashenko gave the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly the power to approve the military doctrine, to impose a state of emergency and martial law, and to send Belarusian servicemen to other countries.
The law No. 292-3 of July 17, 2023 was published on the national legal portal.
It’s interesting that this document was published today, when Lukashenko flew to St. Petersburg to meet with Putin.
-
Pari ajatusta:
1) Lukashenko on jo pidemmän aikaa pitänyt meteliä Puolan "uhasta" Valko-Venäjää kohtaan. Spekuloin aikaisemmin, että voisiko se olla tekosyy, jolla pitää oman armeijan omassa maassaan, mutta toinen vaihtoehto on se että hän uskoo aidosti tähän. Tällöin tämä lakimuutos olisi tarkoitettu erityisesti Puolaa vastaan, uhkaukseksi. Mikä taas tarkoittaisi, että se tuskin johtaa mihinkään.
2) tuossa ylempänä jo pohdittiin, onko tarkoitus yrittää sitoa Ukrainan joukkoja Valko-Venäjän rajalle torjumaan tätä "uhkaa". Tuskin toimii, siellä on jo paikallisia TDF-pataljoonia eikä suuremmalle määrälle ole tarvetta. Uhka on bluffia ja alueen puolustusta on vahvistettu yli vuoden ajan. Lukashenkon armeija ei pystyisi siihen vähäänkään, mihin Putinin armeija kykeni joten tuskin lähtevät kokeilemaan
3) tätä voidaan hyödyntää valkovenäläisten lähettämisessä sinne missä Putin tarvitsee heitä kipeimmin: Ukrainan sotatoimialueelle. En usko että nyt puhutaan ammattisotilaista tai reserviläisistä suoraan, vaan erilaisista "vapaaehtoisista". Antaisi ryssälle luvan rekrytoida Valko-Venäjällä samaan tapaan kuin ovat tehneet Venäjällä ja sen muissa rajanaapureissa jo pidempään. Tosin oletan, että sama kampanja olisi ollut käynnissä jo Valko-Venäjälläkin, joten miksi tarvittaisiin tämä lakimuutos? Ehkä tarkoitus on "rekrytoida" vankiloista?
4) ei tietysti voi jättää pois laskuista sitä mahdollisuutta että tämä on ensimmäinen askel ennen yleistä liikekannallepanoa, joka voi olla joko laaja tai pienimuotoinen. Riippuu täysin heidän kyvyistä aktivoida reserviä. Jos nämä joukot lähetettäisiin Ukrainaan, olipa kyse eteläisen rajan ylittämisestä tai itäisestä ja/tai eteläisestä Ukrainasta, tämä tarkoittaisi Valko-Venäjän suoraa osallistumista Putinin sotaan. Lukashenko on toistaiseksi pysynyt irti sodasta, joten miksi aloittaa nyt? Onko Putin todella näin epätoivoinen? Miksei vain tehdä uutta mobilisointikierrosta Venäjällä, jos tarvitsevat lisää sotilaita? Ehkä hän pelkää että se johtaisi levottomuuksiin tällä kertaa, joten pitää kokeilla kaikki muut vaihtoehdot ennen sitä?
Tässä haiskahtaa Putinin painostus ja Lukashenko antanut periksi, mutta se ei välttämättä tarkoita että johtaisi mihinkään. Ehkä vaatimus oli että tällainen laki pitää tehdä ja nyt se on tehty. Ryssä pyrkii aina saamaan tavoittelemansa halvimpaan mahdolliseen hintaan ja mikäs olisi sen halvempaa kuin voimankäytöllä bluffaaminen? Vastapuoli reagoi bluffiin, ilman että itse tarvitsee tehdä minkäänlaista todellista panostusta. Ei saa olla hölmö: pitää katsoa, mitä ryssä tekee eikä mitä se sanoo.
Viimeksi muokattu:
Antares
Respected Leader
Putin on de-facto elinikäinen keisari. Tästä syystä Putinin arvostelu ei ole sallittua, mikä on syy Girkinin pidätykseen. Ilman Putinia Venäjä valtiona lakkaisi olemasta.
Venäjä = Putin
Tai toisin sanottuna: Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer
Meanwhile in Russia: Yevgeny Satanovsky justified the arrest of Igor Girkin [Strelkov] by explaining that Putin is a de-facto Emperor and no one is allowed to criticize him.
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In case it’s not clear why you can’t criticize Putin, who is a <checks notes> “de-facto Sovereign Emperor”, Satanovsky clarifies that “if this continues indefinitely…the country would cease to exist!” Ah. So the country isn’t the people living there, it’s the one guy running it.
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Toinen twitter-tili: LÄHDE
“[Girkin] should have realized that constantly wiping his feet on the Supreme Commander, the President, the top official of the country, de-facto functioning as a Sovereign Emperor”
~ Yevgeny Satanovsky
Excuse the me…the what?
RUSSIA: Sovereign Emperor! THE SUPREME! PUTIN!!!
Venäjä = Putin
Tai toisin sanottuna: Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer
Meanwhile in Russia: Yevgeny Satanovsky justified the arrest of Igor Girkin [Strelkov] by explaining that Putin is a de-facto Emperor and no one is allowed to criticize him.
-
In case it’s not clear why you can’t criticize Putin, who is a <checks notes> “de-facto Sovereign Emperor”, Satanovsky clarifies that “if this continues indefinitely…the country would cease to exist!” Ah. So the country isn’t the people living there, it’s the one guy running it.
-
Toinen twitter-tili: LÄHDE
“[Girkin] should have realized that constantly wiping his feet on the Supreme Commander, the President, the top official of the country, de-facto functioning as a Sovereign Emperor”
~ Yevgeny Satanovsky
Excuse the me…the what?
RUSSIA: Sovereign Emperor! THE SUPREME! PUTIN!!!
Antares
Respected Leader
Slovakia ja Unkari ovat heikkoja Venäjän suhteen. Slovakiassa järjestetään uudet parlamenttivaalit syyskuussa 2023 ja ryssän ystävä Robert Fico näyttäisi olevan johdossa gallupien mukaan. Mahdollisesti Slovakian seuraava pääministeri, mikä voi johtaa linjan muutoksiin mm. Ukrainalle annetun tuen osalta.
Jos on uskominen artikkelissa lainattuja gallupeja, slovakkeihin näyttää purevan ryssän propaganda eikä Slovakian valtio ole halukas puuttumaan siihen.
Lainaan viitatun artikkelin tekstin spoilerin taakse (artikkeli julkaistu 18.7.2023): LÄHDE
Jos on uskominen artikkelissa lainattuja gallupeja, slovakkeihin näyttää purevan ryssän propaganda eikä Slovakian valtio ole halukas puuttumaan siihen.
Lainaan viitatun artikkelin tekstin spoilerin taakse (artikkeli julkaistu 18.7.2023): LÄHDE
The West Can’t Ignore Slovakia’s Election
A pro-Kremlin candidate is leading the polls—and could shatter the country’s support for Ukraine.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/07/18/slovakia-elections-fico-russia-ukraine-war-propaganda/
By Balazs Tarnok, a jurist from Slovakia and managing director of the Europe Strategy Research Institute at the University of Public Service in Budapest, Hungary.
Former Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico gives a speech during a protest against COVID-19 protective measures in Kosice, Slovakia, on Sept. 1, 2021.
PETER LAZAR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
JULY 18, 2023, 6:00 AM
Slovakia will hold snap elections in September—and polls predict former Prime Minister Robert Fico is likely to win. Western nations should be concerned. Anti-Western sentiment is on the rise in Slovakia, and Fico is determined to take advantage of it to adopt an openly pro-Kremlin foreign policy.
Slovakia’s center-right government under Prime Minister Eduard Heger—a big supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia—fell last December due to unstable and chaotic governance. In September 2022, Heger lost his parliamentary majority and continued to govern with a minority government; three months later, he lost a no-confidence vote and remained in power as a caretaker prime minister until resigning due to corruption scandals in May. Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova then installed a caretaker government to govern the country until the September elections. That temporary leadership has also affirmed that it backs Ukraine.
Slovakia’s support for Ukraine is a quarter-century in the making. But it could shatter entirely if Fico takes the helm.
For most of the 1990s, after the breakup of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia’s political parties were divided on foreign policy. Those on the left and the radical right preferred to orient themselves toward Russia, while the center-right sought alignment with the West. The most prominent representative of the former camp was Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, who governed from 1994 to 1998 and, in the words of then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, made Slovakia the “black hole” of the region.
Meciar used mafia methods to govern and undermined the rule of law. Slovakia was internationally isolated and barred from joining NATO in 1999 after it had applied for membership two years prior; NATO cited “the behavior of the Slovak decision-making institutions” in its rejection. Neighbors Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic still managed to accede in 1999, and Slovakia only became a member of the military alliance five years later.
In 1998 elections, Slovakia’s democratic opposition ousted Meciar, and the Slovak political elite adopted an informal agreement that became known as the 1998 Consensus. Despite significant pro-Russian sentiment among the Slovak population, the new doctrine held that Slovakia’s foreign policy should never turn against the Western mainstream because of how seriously doing so would harm the country’s geopolitical interests. In other words: Slovaks had learned the harsh lessons of the Meciar era.
The 1998 Consensus remained broadly intact for the past 25 years; a new generation of Slovaks grew up believing that to be Slovak meant to be Western-oriented. Although Meciar’s political heir, Fico—who governed between 2006 and 2010 and 2012 and 2018—made some symbolic gestures toward Russia, he never turned against the Western mainstream when making critical foreign-policy decisions. For example, Fico in 2016 repeatedly called for the European Union to lift sanctions on Russia but eventually supported them in EU fora, which Slovakia joined in 2004. His support for Russia, in other words, was merely rhetorical; in practice, Fico was a core part of the West.
Yet the Fico of today is no longer the Fico of 2016. If Fico returns to power, he will bring down the 1998 Consensus and radically change Slovakia’s foreign policy. Slovakia is currently one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine in its war against Russia. Fico would institute a complete 180-degree turn and instead spread Russian propaganda.
Fico’s anti-Western shift began in 2018, after he was removed from office. That year, Slovakian investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, were murdered. Kuciak had exposed how deeply the Slovak police, justice system, and politicians were colluding with criminals, including the Italian mafia. The incident brought tens of thousands of Slovak citizens to the streets and forced Fico to step down. Fico blamed the demonstrations on Western intervention and baselessly accused Hungarian American financier George Soros of organizing them. Then, in 2020, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini—who had replaced Fico in 2018—split with Fico’s social democratic party to found his own Western-oriented offshoot. In response, Fico shifted his own faction toward a more pro-Russia stance—formalizing his pro-Moscow sympathies.
But Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has been the most important force behind Fico’s pivot. Fico today is openly pushing an anti-U.S. and pro-Russia foreign policy. Last year, Fico criticized the ratification of Slovakia’s Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States, calling it “treason” and a “betrayal of national interests.” In May, he smeared Caputova—who holds a ceremonial post—as an “American agent” because of her foreign policy, especially her support for Ukraine. Fico has stressed that if he returns to power, his first action will be to stop sending Ukraine weapons—something he has called for since May 2022. Fico said on the campaign trail that “Ukrainian fascists” started the war in 2014 and that there is no way Ukraine could take back the Crimean Peninsula. He has recently likened the arrival of NATO soldiers in Slovakia to a “welcoming of the Wehrmacht.”
Fico is keen to exploit the residual pro-Russian sentiment in Slovak society in this September’s elections by both spreading and profiting from a robust Russian propaganda network in the country. There are estimated to be 253 disinformation-peddling—and largely pro-Kremlin—outlets in Slovakia as well as more than 1,800 Facebook pages and open online groups sharing pro-Russian propaganda. According to the Beacon Project, an initiative by the International Republican Institute that tracks the disinformation activities of Russian embassies in Europe, the Facebook account of the Russian Embassy in Slovakia is the most virulent in Europe when it comes to undermining the Ukrainian war effort.
Grigorij Meseznikov, the president of the Institute for Public Affairs in Bratislava, thinks that Russians identified Slovakia as the weakest among Central European countries—insofar as the public’s pro-Western sentiment was concerned—and saw conditions favorable for spreading their propaganda. Caputova herself has warned that Slovakia risks succumbing to Russian disinformation.
In 2020, according to a Globsec Trends survey, 78 percent of Slovaks considered Russia their Slavic “brother nation.” The same survey showed that 42 percent of Slovaks regard Russia as their strategic partner, while only 17 percent see the United States that way.
In January 2022, significantly more Slovaks blamed NATO and the United States (44 percent) for the tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border than Russia (35 percent), according to a poll by the Focus agency for Markiza. Public opinion has become even more lopsided since Russia’s invasion a month later. The Globsec Trends 2023 survey, published in May of this year, showed that half of Slovaks blame Ukraine or the West for the war (17 percent and 34 percent, respectively, for a combined 51 percent), while only 40 percent find Russia responsible. The latter number is the lowest in Central and Eastern Europe, making Slovaks the most pro-Russian people in the region. (The share of the population that blames Russia is 44 percent in Bulgaria, 54 percent in Hungary, and 65 percent in Romania.) According to the same poll, only 59 percent of Slovaks want their country to continue to support Ukrainian refugees. In September 2022, a different survey showed that the majority of Slovaks want Russia to win the war.
Fico has managed to rekindle pro-Russian sentiment with an intensity not seen since the Meciar era—an especially disturbing trend as Slovaks grapple with Russian aggression in Ukraine. But the West—and especially the United States—has remained uninterested in or unaware of these dangerous tendencies. In its 2022 Slovakia human rights report, the U.S. State Department mentions only four pro-Russian disinformation websites that Slovakian authorities blocked and does not seem concerned about the spread of pro-Russian propaganda in the country more broadly. The State Department raised much more concern about the proliferation of Russian narratives in its reports on Hungary and Romania.
So far, Fico’s strategy seems to be working. Pellegrini’s party had led national polls since its 2020 founding until early this year. In March, Fico’s party took over, and its lead is growing. As of late June, Fico’s party led with 19 percent, while Pellegrini’s followed at 16 percent, according to Politico’s poll of polls.
In November 2022, when I visited human rights institutions in Washington to raise awareness about human rights violations against the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, my American partners seemed genuinely surprised when I warned about the rising anti-U.S. sentiment in the country.
But pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiments in the eastern flank of NATO should not be disregarded—especially when Ukraine is fighting Russian aggression and the West needs to stand united against Russian propaganda more than ever. While the United States has placed other countries in the region under increasing scrutiny—most notably Hungary—Russian propaganda took over Slovakia. And now its main proponent seems poised to win an election.
-
Balazs Tarnok is a jurist from Slovakia and managing director of the Europe Strategy Research Institute at the University of Public Service in Budapest, Hungary. He is the co-founder of the international working group Freedom and Identity in Central Europe. In 2021, he was the Hungary Foundation’s visiting research fellow at the University of Notre Dame. Twitter: @TarnokB
The West Can’t Ignore Slovakia’s Election
A pro-Kremlin candidate is leading the polls—and could shatter the country’s support for Ukraine.
By Balazs Tarnok, a jurist from Slovakia and managing director of the Europe Strategy Research Institute at the University of Public Service in Budapest, Hungary.
Former Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico gives a speech during a protest against COVID-19 protective measures in Kosice, Slovakia, on Sept. 1, 2021.
PETER LAZAR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
JULY 18, 2023, 6:00 AM
Slovakia will hold snap elections in September—and polls predict former Prime Minister Robert Fico is likely to win. Western nations should be concerned. Anti-Western sentiment is on the rise in Slovakia, and Fico is determined to take advantage of it to adopt an openly pro-Kremlin foreign policy.
Slovakia’s center-right government under Prime Minister Eduard Heger—a big supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia—fell last December due to unstable and chaotic governance. In September 2022, Heger lost his parliamentary majority and continued to govern with a minority government; three months later, he lost a no-confidence vote and remained in power as a caretaker prime minister until resigning due to corruption scandals in May. Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova then installed a caretaker government to govern the country until the September elections. That temporary leadership has also affirmed that it backs Ukraine.
Slovakia’s support for Ukraine is a quarter-century in the making. But it could shatter entirely if Fico takes the helm.
For most of the 1990s, after the breakup of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia’s political parties were divided on foreign policy. Those on the left and the radical right preferred to orient themselves toward Russia, while the center-right sought alignment with the West. The most prominent representative of the former camp was Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, who governed from 1994 to 1998 and, in the words of then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, made Slovakia the “black hole” of the region.
Meciar used mafia methods to govern and undermined the rule of law. Slovakia was internationally isolated and barred from joining NATO in 1999 after it had applied for membership two years prior; NATO cited “the behavior of the Slovak decision-making institutions” in its rejection. Neighbors Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic still managed to accede in 1999, and Slovakia only became a member of the military alliance five years later.
In 1998 elections, Slovakia’s democratic opposition ousted Meciar, and the Slovak political elite adopted an informal agreement that became known as the 1998 Consensus. Despite significant pro-Russian sentiment among the Slovak population, the new doctrine held that Slovakia’s foreign policy should never turn against the Western mainstream because of how seriously doing so would harm the country’s geopolitical interests. In other words: Slovaks had learned the harsh lessons of the Meciar era.
The 1998 Consensus remained broadly intact for the past 25 years; a new generation of Slovaks grew up believing that to be Slovak meant to be Western-oriented. Although Meciar’s political heir, Fico—who governed between 2006 and 2010 and 2012 and 2018—made some symbolic gestures toward Russia, he never turned against the Western mainstream when making critical foreign-policy decisions. For example, Fico in 2016 repeatedly called for the European Union to lift sanctions on Russia but eventually supported them in EU fora, which Slovakia joined in 2004. His support for Russia, in other words, was merely rhetorical; in practice, Fico was a core part of the West.
Yet the Fico of today is no longer the Fico of 2016. If Fico returns to power, he will bring down the 1998 Consensus and radically change Slovakia’s foreign policy. Slovakia is currently one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine in its war against Russia. Fico would institute a complete 180-degree turn and instead spread Russian propaganda.
Fico’s anti-Western shift began in 2018, after he was removed from office. That year, Slovakian investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, were murdered. Kuciak had exposed how deeply the Slovak police, justice system, and politicians were colluding with criminals, including the Italian mafia. The incident brought tens of thousands of Slovak citizens to the streets and forced Fico to step down. Fico blamed the demonstrations on Western intervention and baselessly accused Hungarian American financier George Soros of organizing them. Then, in 2020, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini—who had replaced Fico in 2018—split with Fico’s social democratic party to found his own Western-oriented offshoot. In response, Fico shifted his own faction toward a more pro-Russia stance—formalizing his pro-Moscow sympathies.
But Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has been the most important force behind Fico’s pivot. Fico today is openly pushing an anti-U.S. and pro-Russia foreign policy. Last year, Fico criticized the ratification of Slovakia’s Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States, calling it “treason” and a “betrayal of national interests.” In May, he smeared Caputova—who holds a ceremonial post—as an “American agent” because of her foreign policy, especially her support for Ukraine. Fico has stressed that if he returns to power, his first action will be to stop sending Ukraine weapons—something he has called for since May 2022. Fico said on the campaign trail that “Ukrainian fascists” started the war in 2014 and that there is no way Ukraine could take back the Crimean Peninsula. He has recently likened the arrival of NATO soldiers in Slovakia to a “welcoming of the Wehrmacht.”
Fico is keen to exploit the residual pro-Russian sentiment in Slovak society in this September’s elections by both spreading and profiting from a robust Russian propaganda network in the country. There are estimated to be 253 disinformation-peddling—and largely pro-Kremlin—outlets in Slovakia as well as more than 1,800 Facebook pages and open online groups sharing pro-Russian propaganda. According to the Beacon Project, an initiative by the International Republican Institute that tracks the disinformation activities of Russian embassies in Europe, the Facebook account of the Russian Embassy in Slovakia is the most virulent in Europe when it comes to undermining the Ukrainian war effort.
Grigorij Meseznikov, the president of the Institute for Public Affairs in Bratislava, thinks that Russians identified Slovakia as the weakest among Central European countries—insofar as the public’s pro-Western sentiment was concerned—and saw conditions favorable for spreading their propaganda. Caputova herself has warned that Slovakia risks succumbing to Russian disinformation.
In 2020, according to a Globsec Trends survey, 78 percent of Slovaks considered Russia their Slavic “brother nation.” The same survey showed that 42 percent of Slovaks regard Russia as their strategic partner, while only 17 percent see the United States that way.
In January 2022, significantly more Slovaks blamed NATO and the United States (44 percent) for the tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border than Russia (35 percent), according to a poll by the Focus agency for Markiza. Public opinion has become even more lopsided since Russia’s invasion a month later. The Globsec Trends 2023 survey, published in May of this year, showed that half of Slovaks blame Ukraine or the West for the war (17 percent and 34 percent, respectively, for a combined 51 percent), while only 40 percent find Russia responsible. The latter number is the lowest in Central and Eastern Europe, making Slovaks the most pro-Russian people in the region. (The share of the population that blames Russia is 44 percent in Bulgaria, 54 percent in Hungary, and 65 percent in Romania.) According to the same poll, only 59 percent of Slovaks want their country to continue to support Ukrainian refugees. In September 2022, a different survey showed that the majority of Slovaks want Russia to win the war.
Fico has managed to rekindle pro-Russian sentiment with an intensity not seen since the Meciar era—an especially disturbing trend as Slovaks grapple with Russian aggression in Ukraine. But the West—and especially the United States—has remained uninterested in or unaware of these dangerous tendencies. In its 2022 Slovakia human rights report, the U.S. State Department mentions only four pro-Russian disinformation websites that Slovakian authorities blocked and does not seem concerned about the spread of pro-Russian propaganda in the country more broadly. The State Department raised much more concern about the proliferation of Russian narratives in its reports on Hungary and Romania.
So far, Fico’s strategy seems to be working. Pellegrini’s party had led national polls since its 2020 founding until early this year. In March, Fico’s party took over, and its lead is growing. As of late June, Fico’s party led with 19 percent, while Pellegrini’s followed at 16 percent, according to Politico’s poll of polls.
In November 2022, when I visited human rights institutions in Washington to raise awareness about human rights violations against the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, my American partners seemed genuinely surprised when I warned about the rising anti-U.S. sentiment in the country.
But pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiments in the eastern flank of NATO should not be disregarded—especially when Ukraine is fighting Russian aggression and the West needs to stand united against Russian propaganda more than ever. While the United States has placed other countries in the region under increasing scrutiny—most notably Hungary—Russian propaganda took over Slovakia. And now its main proponent seems poised to win an election.
-
Balazs Tarnok is a jurist from Slovakia and managing director of the Europe Strategy Research Institute at the University of Public Service in Budapest, Hungary. He is the co-founder of the international working group Freedom and Identity in Central Europe. In 2021, he was the Hungary Foundation’s visiting research fellow at the University of Notre Dame. Twitter: @TarnokB
missileman
Kenraali
Pahaltahan tämä näyttää. Saksan kansa taisteli loppuun saakka, johtajansa rinnalla vaikka kyse oli "demokraattisesta" valtiosta ennen natsien valtaannousua
. Kulmakerroin Saksassa oli kuitenkin pahempi eli kyllä siellä pyyteettömästi mukana oli vähintään 90% kansasta ainakin alkuvaiheessa. Valtion terrori piti kansan kurissa sitten kurjaan loppuun saakka.Venäjällä tilanne on samantapainen. Luulisin että kansakunnasta varmaan noin 50 - 60% väestöstä on täysin rinnoin hyökkäyssodassa. Oikea oppositio on jo poistunut maasta tai istuvat vankilassa. Tässäkin tapauksessa valtionterrori pitää kurissa kansalaiset katkeraan loppuun saakka. Tuo kansakunta on samassa tilassa kuin Saksa ja se ei pysty itse sisäisesti tuota hallintoa ajamaan alas. Luulen että venäjä ja sen tsaarihallinto tulee taistelemaan katkeraan loppuun saakka tämän sodan, koska kyse on oman vallan jatkumisesta. YK on täysi vitsi ja mitään järkeviä toimia sieltä ei ole tullut koko 1.5 vuoden aikana tullut venäjän painostamiseksi lopettamaan tämä sota. Tämä sota jatkuu pitkään ja vaihtoehtona on vain venäjän armeijan täydellinen luhistuminen, mutta se tulee maksamaan Ukrainan valtiolle ja kansalle järkyttävän hinnan. Miksi Ukrainan kansan pitää yleensä olla syyllinen siihen että venäjä on ajanut oman kansakuntansa hallinnon myötä umpikujaan ? YK:n johdolla pakotteet moninkertaisiksi nykyisistä, kaikki yritykset jotka toimivat yhteistyössä venäjän kanssa syytteeseen...luulisi että keinoja kyllä löytyy
missileman
Kenraali
Tankin tuhoaminen tykistön laser-ohjatulla ammuksella. Tuossa väitetään että Stugna-P:lla olisi tehty tuo maalinosoitus.
missileman
Kenraali
Ampuja ja komentaja saivat varmaan osumaa, kun jäivät sisälle
Ja kun kokonaiskuvaan otetaan mukaan ryssän kuvottava, mutta ilmeisen tehokas propaganda useissa valtioissa, ryssämielisten poliitikkojen lahjonta ja vaalikampanjoiden rahoitus, epätietoisten ja uutisia vähemmän seuraavien ankara trollaus ryssää puoltavien mielipiteiden muodostamiseksi, "ei-poliittisten" järjestojen (KOK ja lajiliitot) painostus ja lahjonta ryssien pitämiseksi mukana kisoissa, korokkeilla, banketeissa ja katsomoissa (ryssälippuja tultaneen näkemään), ei tästä hyvä seuraa ellei touhulle laiteta pistettä. Siihen tarvitaan voimakeinoja. Voimakeinoja läntisissä sivistysmaissa, sitä ryssä on toimillaan pakottamassa. Ja valitettavasti voimakeinojen käytöllekin löytyy vastustajia, vaikkeivät edes olisi ryssämielisiä. Riittää, että ovat suvakkeja, joille mikä tahansa viranomaisen puuttuminen aikaansaa "tätä ryhmää on ruvettava puolustamaan" reaktion. Ja sitten liimailevat itseään kiinni parlamenttitalon portaiisiin, poliisiautoihin tai muuta yhtä typerää. Ryssän touhuille pitää saada loppu välittömästi.Pahaltahan tämä näyttää. Saksan kansa taisteli loppuun saakka, johtajansa rinnalla vaikka kyse oli "demokraattisesta" valtiosta ennen natsien valtaannousua
Venäjällä tilanne on samantapainen. Luulisin että kansakunnasta varmaan noin 50 - 60% väestöstä on täysin rinnoin hyökkäyssodassa. Oikea oppositio on jo poistunut maasta tai istuvat vankilassa. Tässäkin tapauksessa valtionterrori pitää kurissa kansalaiset katkeraan loppuun saakka. Tuo kansakunta on samassa tilassa kuin Saksa ja se ei pysty itse sisäisesti tuota hallintoa ajamaan alas. Luulen että venäjä ja sen tsaarihallinto tulee taistelemaan katkeraan loppuun saakka tämän sodan, koska kyse on oman vallan jatkumisesta. YK on täysi vitsi ja mitään järkeviä toimia sieltä ei ole tullut koko 1.5 vuoden aikana tullut venäjän painostamiseksi lopettamaan tämä sota. Tämä sota jatkuu pitkään ja vaihtoehtona on vain venäjän armeijan täydellinen luhistuminen, mutta se tulee maksamaan Ukrainan valtiolle ja kansalle järkyttävän hinnan. Miksi Ukrainan kansan pitää yleensä olla syyllinen siihen että venäjä on ajanut oman kansakuntansa hallinnon myötä umpikujaan ? YK:n johdolla pakotteet moninkertaisiksi nykyisistä, kaikki yritykset jotka toimivat yhteistyössä venäjän kanssa syytteeseen...luulisi että keinoja kyllä löytyy
