How Slovakia’s Fico became Putin’s top ally inside the EU
Slovak prime minister Robert Fico appears to have become Russia’s most prominent ally in the European Union, following the demise of Hungary’s pro-Kremlin leader.
Slovakia
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[Interview] ‘Putin understands only strength’: EU envoy in Kyiv urges stronger air defences and hybrid-war response
Katarína Mathernová, the EU’s ambassador to Ukraine, says Putin is boiling Kyiv ‘like a frog’, but she is determined to stay. She sees parallels between Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Putin’s essay which stated that Ukraine has no right to national existence, sovereignty or identity.
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From Munich to Prešov and Leipzig: a GRU-linked sabotage network operated from Slovak territory
Slovakia has become a staging ground for Russian operations. A bad news meaning Europe’s defence industry, airports and supply lines to Ukraine can be targeted far from the actual front line.
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Slovak drone factory narrowly escapes Russian-linked napalm arson attack as police arrest three foreign suspects
Another stage in Russia’s shadow war – targeting a Slovak drone factory. The planned arson attack is testing Nato’s eastern flank and its defence industry.
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EU to give boost to prosecutor’s office as part of new anti-corruption measures later this year
The announcement on Friday follows the publication of reports that attempt to decrypt rule-of-law issues in each of the 27 member states. It will include a boost to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
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Hungary’s Magyar moves to sideline senior Fidesz MPs with 12‑year term limit (74 days after election)
As Peter Magyar rams through his ‘Purgatory’ reforms to sideline Orbán’s old guard, he has also triggered warnings against his bid to eject the president.
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Inside Slovakia’s escalating war on NGOs
Beyond attempts to copy ‘foreign agent’ laws seen in other countries, Slovak authorities are deploying a well-worn playbook to villainise those who hold them to account. Robert Fico and his minister of interior have gone so far as to accuse civil society groups of plotting a “state coup”. The hostility extends to minority rights as well, with the minister of culture publicly disparaging LGBTI human rights defenders and branding them a ‘malignant ideology’ and stating they will ‘no longer receive a cent’
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‘Manual for autocrats’: how Fico’s rule-of-law breaches put Slovakia in EU sanctions crosshairs
Recent reforms by Robert Fico’s government in Bratislava have drawn intense scrutiny for undermining the rule of law — prompting the European Parliament to renew its call to freeze EU funding for Slovakia.
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Slovakia’s schizophrenia: defending Nato’s eastern flank, but PM courts the country threatening it
Slovak defence minister Robert Kaliňák announced Bratislava wants to join the Baltic Air Policing mission with its new F-16 fighter jets — mixing up the confusing cocktail of Robert Fico’s government foreign-policy messaging.
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Putin and Fico look like losers at ‘Victory’ paradeJust six leaders from UN-recognised states joined Russian president Vladimir Putin — from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Slovakia, and Uzbekistan — highlighting his isolation.
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![[Interview] MEP Daniel Freund warns Slovakia anti-corruption purge can cost millions: ‘If EU funds aren’t safe, stop them’](https://static.euobserver.com/2026/05/1729688599814_20241023_EP-174102D_AR2_MCU_037-1.jpg)
[Interview] MEP Daniel Freund warns Slovakia anti-corruption purge can cost millions: ‘If EU funds aren’t safe, stop them’
A veteran watchdog of the rule of law in Hungary, German Green MEP Daniel Freund warns that Slovakia is now going down a similar path. He said the EU Commission must trigger the conditionality mechanism immediately to protect EU taxpayer money from being funnelled into private interests, to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, where it took over a decade to penalise Hungary.
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Slovakia may lose EU funds like Hungary. MEPs warned Fico not to follow Orbán’s path
MEPs had been criticising Robert Fico’s government for abolishing the National Criminal Agency and the Special Prosecutor’s Office, and most recently attempts to the same for the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers.
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71 years without a military strategy, Germany just wrote one
Responsibility for Europe reads differently from Bratislava than from Brussels. The new German defence strategy is worth reading carefully, particularly from the capitals whose security still depends on German territory. Responsibility for Europe will be defined in the next decade by what Berlin does if Washington no longer underwrites European defence at previous levels. Germany has now stated, in writing, that this is the planning horizon.
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Hungary and Slovakia quietly drop Russia vetoes, freeing up EU’s €90bn for Ukraine
“The Hungarian and Slovakian ambassadors briefly took the floor,” said one EU diplomat, as Hungary’s veto on a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine fell.
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Leaked phone call reveals how Orbán’s Hungary and Fico’s Slovakia helped Russian oligarchs
Hungarian foreign affairs minister Péter Szijjártó, in a conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, said that Budapest and Bratislava would help Russians get off the EU sanctions list. Meanwhile, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also lobbied Robert Fico in a letter on behalf of a Russian oligarch.
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Hungarian minister asked Moscow to help Slovak ally before election, leaked transcript suggests
A leaked transcript of a 2020 phone call suggests Hungary’s foreign minister sought Moscow’s help to bolster a Slovak ally ahead of a pivotal election, raising fresh questions about Budapest’s ties to the Kremlin and deepening concerns within the EU over trust, influence and the handling of sensitive information.
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EU leaders enraged as summit ends with Orbán vetoing €90bn Ukraine aid
EU leaders failed to convince Hungary to lift its veto on Ukraine support, as president Volodomyr Zelensky lamented the blockage.
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‘Isolated’ Slovakia drops EU veto threat on Russia sanctions
Slovakia had pushed for the EU to delist two Russian oligarchs, but did a U-turn on Saturday.
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Arms flows rise to Cold War levels amid Ukraine and EU rearmament
Global arms flows are surging to Cold War levels, fuelled by European rearmament and the war in Ukraine. Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic are reshaping Europe’s defence landscape, while a Czechoslovak Group’s record-breaking IPO exposes links between business and politics. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia eyes Ukrainian weapons amid drone threats, highlighting a defence boom that is both highly profitable and increasingly entangled with geopolitics.
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Slovakia’s Fico threatens existing EU sanctions on Russia, as Hungary vetoes new ones
Slovakia has said it would block the rollover of the existing visa-bans and asset-freezes on Russia due on 15 March, unless the EU first delists two Russian oligarchs.
