DISINFORMATION

The collapse of NATO, the militarised EU and dictator Zelensky. Disinformers would like to capitulate to Russia on behalf of Ukraine

Infosecurity.sk presents an overview of disinformation trends that have been on the rise in the last two weeks:

• The pandering to Moscow, the stained criticism of the peace negotiations and the demonisation of Ukrainian President Zelensky were especially present . There was also the occasional scaremongering about a third world war, which was often followed by contradictory questioning of the need to strengthen security;
• While some are chilling the champagne over the American wailing and prematurely rejoicing in the collapse of NATO, other disinformers are railing against the European Union (EU). The latter faces pro-Russian propaganda narratives and accusations of warmongering from a number of 'usual culprits'. This is mainly due to the newly presented plans to strengthen the EU's defences and aid to Ukraine;
• For Robert Fico, the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine has been a key issue, on which he has also threatened to veto the conclusions of the EU summit. In the end, the Prime Minister settled for the European Council's call for a solution to this situation, which he vehemently tried to present to the public as a success of Slovak sovereign policy on all sides of the world. Fico's attacks on the Ukrainian President, who is said to be comfortable with war, were also without substance and logic.
• On the domestic front, there are still reverberating attacks on the civil protests that have been expressing opposition to the government's hijacking of Slovakia at the Kremlin gates since the beginning of the year. Disinformers continue to use the tried and tested narratives of the so-called liberal hate-mongering while questioning the participation of Ukrainians in the protests. Attacks on actors have also multiplied and, paradoxically, those who only recently rallied the crowds in the squares to condemn former Slovak President Z. Čaputová as an "American wh*re".

Truce? Okay, but only Russian!

Will Russia be a reliable neighbour of Slovakia? After three years of Russian aggression in Ukraine, accompanied by massacres of civilians and war crimes, the answer should be obvious. Not to everyone, however, and not to Erik Kaliňák, MEP for the SMER-SSD party and head of the Slovak Prime Minister's advisory team.

In an interview with Interez in early March, Kaliňák admitted that he would want Russians in Kyiv and Uzhhorod. The young propagandist has been supported by, among other disinformers, the page Slovanský výbor (Slavic Committee), which has long acted as a loud trumpet for pro-Kremlin narratives. We will come back to this page later today, as it has become active again in recent weeks and is gaining in popularity. Its admins have not forgotten to add that Ukraine is ungrateful and is ruled by an 'insidious terrorist regime'.

Let us continue with what has been happening on the Telegram, which is traditionally dominated by MEP Ľuboš Blaha (SMER-SSD). In several posts he boasted about his next visit to Moscow, which he also made with lawyer David Lindtner. Lindtner has long defended the interests of the SMER-SSD party and has also advocated, for example, the extremist Daniel Bombic. Blaha did not forget to boast about his meeting with the head of the Russian secret service, saying "the Russians are our brothers".

Why a meeting between an MEP and Sergey Naryshkin (the intelligence officer of a hostile and aggressive state) is problematic probably does not need to be explained. Blaha, however, obviously disagrees with the criticism and defends his meetings in the Kremlin, which still considers Slovakia to be a hostile state, with conspiratorial scenarios about the assassination attempt on Robert Fico and the organisation of protests. Blaha tells his audience, without evidence, that these are connected vessels. Do you know who is supposed to know about this conspiracy? That's right, according to Blaha, the head of Russian intelligence. The MEP boasts that he received secret information from Naryshkin: “Any traitor who has served Western foreign powers in the fight against the Slovak Republic can tremble with fear”. A prime example of shaky intimidation and manipulative efforts at misdirection.

Before we leave the Telegram's waters, let us touch on the schizophrenia of Blaha's communication. On 12 March, he published a piece in which he described the American ceasefire proposal as dictating terms to the Russians that the Kremlin would surely reject. In a March 13 post, Blaha was already applauding Putin and Lavrov as statesmen who had not thrown the American proposal off the table. In the afterword, Blaha turns his hatred fully on the EU, adding that, "if anyone deserves credit for the fact that there is finally a chance for peace, it is Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Russia and the US." Where there's Russian nuance, there's Blaha's coattails.

Other actors in the Slovak (dis)information space have also weighed in on the ceasefire options and Moscow's response. Vladimir Putin's entire speech expressing support for the so-called nuances solution was also shared with headlines by the aforementioned page Slovanský výbor (Slavic Committee). The 30-day ceasefire was in turn presented to his audience by Marek Géci, a member of the far-right Republika party, as a time for "arming Zelensky and preparing for Russia". He added cryptically that it was not supposed to be about peace, but about something ungood. Similarly, the Russian foreign minister referred to the discussion of a European military presence in Ukraine as a hostile intention.

Tomáš Taraba, Minister for the Environment (Slovak National Party), used the subject of the ceasefire to express his conviction that the war in Ukraine is unnecessary. Not because of the futility of Russian aggression, but because for Taraba it was clear from the beginning of the war that it would "end in the defeat of Ukraine". This is said to be the result of politicians who "lose their sense of reality and direct the state into disputes or an agenda that cannot be won". In other words, according to Taraba, Ukraine should have immediately resigned its own sovereignty and capitulated.

The Slovak opposition was attacked in this context by MEP Katarína Roth Neveďalová (SMER-SSD), who accused the Progressive Slovakia party of not pursuing "the good of the citizens of Slovakia" but "perhaps those of Ukraine". She said this about support for arms and aid to Ukraine. Neveďalová thus continued a long-standing narrative in which the interests of Ukraine and Slovakia are pitted against each other. This ignores the fact that support for Ukraine at least increases the chances of maintaining its sovereignty, which could then also act as a security barrier against Russian imperialism.

EU under fire from Russian propaganda. Disinformers seek alliances with Trump and Musk

The tremors that the Western international landscape experienced after the meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents at the end of February were particularly gratifying for those disinformation actors who have long railed against NATO and the EU. While the North Atlantic Alliance was provisionally lauded for dissolution, the EU was haunted by its potential transformation into a military organisation. The favourite discipline of Slovak MEPs – undermining the structures of the institution in which they are supposed to represent the interests of European citizens – also continues.

While Ľuboš Blaha (SMER-SSD) praises Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, he multiplies his attacks on the EU, which, according to the deputy chairman of SMER-SSD, "continues to rattle its guns". In addition to wanting to send the President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, “to the new Nuremberg Tribunal” because of her willingness to help Ukraine militarily, he is also trying to ridicule the new security formats that could strengthen the EU's defences against Russia.

Blaha describes the so-called coalition of the willing as willing to "fight the Russians to the last Ukrainian" and in the following lines takes preliminary delight in the fact that "Russia has won". Eduard Chmelár, a former adviser to the prime minister, operates on a similar issue. In his piece, the latter described the security summit in London at the beginning of March as a "farce" or an embarrassing meeting, which was supposedly "not a peace summit, but a war meeting". By saying that the Ukrainian President prefers armaments and fighting to negotiations and a ceasefire, Chmelár simply confirmed that he continues to adhere to the propaganda of the Russian optics, which deliberately demonises Zelensky as “an obstacle on the road to peace”. He does so by mentioning that he is supposed to be a dictator who does not ask for help from the West, but somehow blackmails it.

Chmelár also went on to attack the EU, which he described as a “multinational arms conglomerate” after the REARM plan was presented. The plan envisages EUR 800 billion to rearm Europe and increase the capacity for immediate aid to Ukraine. This, of course, does not sit well with the mouthpieces of Russian propaganda. In the aforementioned post, Chmelár speaks of a resignation “to the basic principles, instruments and meaning of the functioning of the European Union”. Not only does he ignore the importance of the current security situation, but he also proclaims the imminent disintegration of the Union. In other words, he opposes armaments and the strengthening of Europe's resilience, and, at a time of continued Russian aggression, he speaks erroneously of maintaining social standards.

While we are on the subject of disintegration, MEP Blaha, for his part , has predicted the early end of NATO - he is enjoying it as much as he is enjoying the fact that Elon Musk has written it. He continues with narratives from the Russian active measures handbook – he tries to sway the public's opinion by claiming that “NATO does not solve security threats, it provokes them”, or “if it were not for NATO's expansion towards Russia's borders, there would be no conflict between Russia and Ukraine today”. In doing so, he legitimises Russian aggression and ignores the Kremlin's imperial appetites. Nothing new, but still distasteful.

György Gyimesi also tried to question the gravity of Russian imperialism on the borders with Europe. The information that Russia would be ready to attack European states any time soon is ridiculed by a member of the Hungarian Alliance party. Gyimesi falsely likens the Russian threat to a deliberate EU’s preparation of the population to weaponise and prolong the conflict. Gyimesi links the conspiratorial scenario with the label of European warmongers.

The chairman of the far-right Republika party followed a similar rhetoric. Milan Uhrík, speaking in the European Parliament, described the REARM plan as militarising and indebting the EU and accused the EC of running a corrupt business. In the conclusion of his speech he calls for a normal life, but once again he does not address the right issue. In the next post, he scares about preparations for total war and the insane war plans of Brussels. Again, he manipulatively presents these as something that should not even concern Slovakia. Despite the propagandistic ideas of the disinformation scene, the reality is unfortunately different.

Special gas operation

As this article shows, the last two weeks have been dominated mainly by issues related to the war in Ukraine and possible peace negotiations. That's why we also looked at them through the analytical tool Gerulata Juno. We used it to analyse the most popular posts on Slovak Facebook that contained the keywords "peace", "ceasefire" or "Zelensky". We excluded from the list those posts that did not contain problematic narratives. We then evaluated the posts based on the total number of interactions (the sum of all reactions, comments, and shares).

The post with the most interactions belongs to Robert Fico. The video shows the Prime Minister's press conference on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. Fico attacked the Ukrainian president in particular. He described Zelensky as a comedian who is supposed to be causing the energy crisis and rising gas prices in the EU area. According to Fico, Zelensky is causing panic by turning off the Russian gas tap and saying that the EU cannot cope without Russian gas. He also operates on the basis that a peace based on force would mean unnecessary loss of human life. Fico has long hidden behind this narrative a rhetoric that actually supports Russian rhetoric calling for Ukraine's immediate surrender. To add, in another post, Fico in turn operated with support for “all peace plans”. He affirmed that he has long been indiscriminate about the quality of peace and has not focused on the potential substance of the outcome of the negotiations. He prefers to fall back on the well-worn Panslavist narrative of Russian propaganda, in which "every day of the war in Ukraine is linked to the mutual killing of Slavs."

In the second piece, which was published by Milan Uhrík, the Slovak MEP took a dig at the EU structures, as it is his habit, targeting in particular the President of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, whom he accused of masterminding a "mega theft". This is how he described the President's plan to strengthen European defence capabilities and the options for providing immediate aid to Ukraine. Uhrík presents European efforts to help a victim of aggression at a time when partnerships are being destabilised to his audience as lies, Russophobia or arms dealing. In doing so, he deliberately ignores the growing tensions in international relations and remains on the side of Russian interests. In essence, he is against a resilient Europe and his video presents a completely distorted reality. Indeed, Uhrík only mentions the sum of EUR 800 billion and talks about an “arms fund”. He does not mention the fact that this includes the relaxation of EU budgetary rules and that 150 billion of the package will be available as a loan (secured by the common EU budget) to increase investment in defence.

The third post again belongs to Robert Fico, and in it the Prime Minister again called for the resumption of transit of Russian gas. In a video from 6 March, Fico talks about his preparations ahead of an extraordinary EU summit on European defence. He focused in particular on accusations of Ukraine destabilising the energy situation and rising prices. He warned that Slovakia would block the summit's security conclusions if the situation was not addressed. Finally, Fico contented himself with the European Council's call to step up efforts to find workable solutions to the gas transit issue. However, he also tried to ridicule in the video the new proposals concerning European security policy – in addition to pressure from the so-called arms lobby, he also talked about the possibility of producing "pink electric tanks" or the disintegration of the EU or NATO. With his remarks, Fico once again confirmed that he does not see the Russian threat as something tangible. However, the underestimation of new security challenges may also be related to the so-called sovereign policy towards all cardinal points of the world that the current Slovak government professes. In reality, however, this policy has no substantive merit; it is merely a mere cloak for getting closer to the Kremlin.

Fico used the next post in the sequence to continue his attacks on the EU. He accused the latter of labelling politicians who have a different opinion. In a recording of the radio programme Saturday Dialogues, he also tried to justify why he did not veto the conclusions of the aforementioned EU summit. What he had threatened to do a few days later, he described as irrelevant results of the meeting of European leaders. He did so a few minutes before outlining that he feared a world war. If we break it down into small pieces, Fico sees a destabilisation of the international order, but he does not consider the conclusions of an organisation which could be a backbone for the future of European security as a member of it to be important. He went on to portray this distorted reality by claiming that the Ukrainian President is comfortable with war. Fico manipulatively worked on the basis that, thanks to the war, Zelensky is receiving financial aid and avoiding elections. It is politically tragic that the Prime Minister does not realise (or does not want to realise) the fact that, without the war and Russian aggression, Ukraine would not need financial aid. The same is the case with the elections, which have not been held since 2019 due to the state of war. It would probably also be redundant to explain the practical obstacles to holding elections in a state part of whose territory is occupied. That is, unless you're a Prime Minister in the hands of Russian propaganda.

The last post in the series was published by Marek Géci of the far-right Republika movement. Géci sided with Elon Musk, more specifically, he chose to share one of the Tesla owner's statements, adding to the growing attacks on Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Musk, Zelensky has "fancy dinners while men die in the trenches". Géci adds that "people are dying and he [Zelensky] is traveling the world, asking for more money". Both of them thus discredit the activities of the Ukrainian president, who in recent weeks has been trying to negotiate security guarantees and the most favourable conditions for peace negotiations. From Musk's point of view, this may be some form of pressure, but in the case of Géci it is more a straw man to appeal to an anti-Ukrainian electorate.

"Liberal stench" at protests

Nor was it cold in the disinformation waters of Slovak domestic politics. Although less vigorous, the attacks and attempts to delegitimise the protests, which since the beginning of the year have been civil society's response to the government's gradual but dangerous rapprochement with the Kremlin, continued.

Marek Géci of the far-right Republika party continued the narrative of the argumentative emptiness of the protests, which are said to harm Slovakia and go against state interests. He decried the tens of thousands in attendance in various cities across Slovakia as groups of "Ukrainian heroes" and "progressives." He thus picked up on a key line of communication of the ruling coalition, which seeks to question the democratic character of the protests and present them as a mere conspiracy of narrowly-specified interests.

For Ľuboš Blaha, the protests are an escalation of so-called liberal hatred. According to the MEP, the “progressive plague” was even supposed to flood the whole of Europe and also the USA. Blaha, together with the government, has long put himself in the position of a victim with similar claims – he manipulatively presents civil resistance to government policies as spreading hatred with "Cintula-like consequences" [Juraj Cintula is the perpetrator of the attempted assassination of Robert Fico in May 2024, whom the government portrays as a radicalized progressive/liberal]. In doing so, it supports a distorted and highly conspiratorial view in which progressive elites are behind the protests in order to motivate the public to violence.

Similarly, Pavol Slota also tried to delegitimise the protests. The nationalist chairman of the DOMOV party asks his Facebook audience if they can smell "the progressive stench that is spreading through Slovakia". It is said to be most intensely felt at the protests, which Slota describes as anti-Slovak. The labels he uses to describe the organisers of the protests say it all – "traitors, rainbow comrades, liberal fascists and all sorts of pofidern anti-Slovak elements and individuals with the help of ungrateful Ukrainian 'refugees'". Slota also adds to the hatred with well-known conspiracy theories that speak of puppet governments in Kyiv and Slovakia between 2020 and 2023. The article is simply a showcase of disinformation narratives and hateful rhetoric that could have easily fallen off the pages of Russian propaganda manuals, and which Slota himself admits he is using to "mobilize pro-national forces that must finally gain control of Slovakia."

Opposition to the government's actions and especially to the hijacking of culture by nationalist circles around Minister Martina Šimkovičová (elected for the SNS) is often expressed by theatre actors. Romana Tabak (a former Slovak professional tennis player, politician and former MP for the SME Rodina party) did not like their civic activism on 8 March 2025. In addition to her job at the Ministry of Tourism, the former MP is also politically involved, often with the aim of stirring up controversy.

Her attendance at a performance at the Slovak National Theatre was no exception, after which Tabak felt the need to get up from the audience and accuse the actors of violating the code of ethics. In a video that went viral across Slovakia, she did so after the actors expressed their disapproval of the government's actions after the performance. She earned public criticism for her behaviour. However, there were also praises, especially from the disinformation scene. For example, the video was shared by the problematic media outlet EReport, which described Tabak as courageous.

Similarly, Tabak's video was endorsed by Ľuboš Hrica, a long-time disinformer, who called the actors parasites, bankrupts, hypocrites, or liberal partisans. Marek Géci (Republika) spoke about the abuse of the theatre for "degenerate [liberal] ideas" , and his former party colleague Miro Heredoš openly called for the actors to be stopped in the theatre. Ľuboš Blaha also did not owe anything to his reputation. He defended Tabak in his own way – he compared the reaction of the rest of the audience (booing) to the situation in "1930s Germany, when Jews appeared somewhere". It is worth remembering that it was Ľuboš Blaha, moralizing in this way, who called on the crowd at the SMER-SSD party event to label former President Čaputová as an "American wh*re".

Project Infosecurity.sk organized by Adapt Institute, which is supported by the Prague office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, continuously monitors the activities of both Slovak and foreign disinformation actors, but focuses mainly on the former. The project activities are built upon daily monitoring of emerging disinformation, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories in the online information space. This approach allows the analysts to identify disinformation posts and narratives that resonated with the public the most, as well as to find out where they originated, and how they spread and evolved on social media. The report takes the form of a bi-weekly summary of arising trends in the spread of malicious information content online. Based on that, Infosecurity.sk can inform the public about emerging and current trends in the field of disinformation, manipulation, and propaganda.