Slovakia on Monday accused Russia of “inadmissible interference” in Saturday’s elections, while the Slovak president entrusted the formation of the new government to the populist Robert Fico, opposed to military aid to Ukraine and considered pro-Russian. Robert Fico’s party, Smer-SD, obtained 23% of the vote, and beat the centrist party Progressive Slovakia (PS, 18%), during Saturday’s vote.
At the same time, the country summoned a Russian diplomat following statements by the head of Russian foreign intelligence who spoke of Washington’s “interference” in Slovak domestic politics. The Slovak Foreign Ministry protested against the statements of Sergei Naryshkin, who called “into question the integrity of free and democratic elections in Slovakia” and called these remarks “unacceptable interference by the Russian Federation in the process electoral” in Slovakia.
The Russian embassy in Bratislava denied any interference on Monday. “Unlike some current allies of Slovakia, we do not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and do not engage in regime change,” the embassy was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. For its part, the US State Department recalled that “the United States does not take a position in the elections of foreign countries”.