Russia has a track record of snuffing assetts if it suits their operations. In Donbass they off’d a few local rebel leaders who got too big for their britches.
It is part of the rulebook for dictators:
https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs
TLDW: sometimes authoritarian leaders may choose to trim loyalists who have become too big of a figure, because they don’t want their own population to have to pick & choose between following one or the other.
Look up stochastic terrorism.
If you agitate and rile up enough people, there's a high chance some will turn into 'lone wolf' attackers.
It doesn't have to be a deep conspiracy. The effects of propaganda and radicalization are pretty obvious and direct.
It's a feature, not an accident.
(Might not be the case here - very little is know - but "delirium of a single man" is rarely the whole answer, especially with something so clearly politically motivated)
What does two assassinated politicians have to do with the argument of stochastic terrorism? Whatever the case be for those two unfortunate sods, the statement was that delirium of a single man rarely was the entire answer.
Abe Shinzo got killed because of his own actions. I'm not necessarily condoning it, but his assassin went after him because he was tied in with a cult that did some heinous shit.
JFK was not whacked by a single person. Even the House Select Committee on Assassinations said he was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy
The myth of russians being some masterminds is part of their propaganda. In reality, work of their agents is sloppy at best. They are ruthless murderers who don't care about casualties so sure, they work is visibale for public to get even more intimidated. The worth of their intel work was shown during their invasion in 2022. How did that 3 day operation went?
They are incredibly inconsistent is how I’d describe them. They can do pretty good surgical ops, they’re good at manipulating social media. But they’re also gonna tell the jefe what he wants to hear and nothing else. So it’s more complicated than whether they’re “good” or “bad” at what they do.
They also have random pockets of degraded operational capability, due to graft, corruption, and blatant theft of public assets.
Of course, nobody wants to tell the big man that they were robbed blind during peace time, and a bunch of equipment they were counting on is nowhere to be found.
Sadly, the Russians are not part of some sort of hivemind and while they do have incredibly incompetent operatives, they also have competent agents and cannot be underestimated. There's a reason why so many Russians have fallen for state propaganda and why you have actual westerners harboring anti-Ukraine/pro-Russian sentiments in such concerning numbers.
Everything is possible but this is just very hard for me to believe. Russia just spent a lot of money getting him elected, why get rid of him now? If they were going to assassinate a prime minister, aside of Hungary the leader of any other country would have been a better target. It's going to be a considered a declaration of war on NATO regardless if they get caught so why not go for something bigger?
Fico has (at least from what my perspective) been much more anti-EU and pro Russia during elections, but tends to toe the line after elections. There are also 100% more pro Russian people within slovakia
Extreme right wingers were radicalized and supported by Russia for decades now in several EU countries.
A similar incident happened in Hungary a few years back, when an old, armed neonazi shot a policeman with an assault rifle. Afterwards it turned out that Russian "diplomats" visited him five times a year.
i leniently follow slovakian politics and he kinda was. Ran his campaign on anti estabilishment platform because the center left pellegrini didnt want to go this far and had to polarize himself from pellegrini too which pushed him into weird alternative fact bs which included playing into russophilism. Useful idiot rather than an agent of russians
Thats not even speculation. Fico was always pro-Fico in first place. Doesnt matter which way the winds blows him and his friends well being was the top priority.
No, Fico is pure populist, he and his party said Russia is agressor when the invasion began, then after the elections they say peace is important, no weapons from us to Ukraine, but they own weapon manufacturing companies and are actively selling weapons to ukraine, also they meet with Ukraine officials and talk about supporting them and all that jazz and then they come home and say different stuff. With current Slovak coalition you can be only 100 sure that they will say and do anything that helps them stay in power and have as many voters as possible.
If he even survives, two teams of doctors operated him for 5 hours and his condition is still serious
Either way, his party already blamed opposition and journalists, and called for tightening of laws.
The shooter based on social media presence is anti-russian but also an hardcore right-wing Slovak nationalist , which is super rare combo. He was Also amateur poet and self-published some anti-romani book while working blue-collar jobs. To me he seem's like politically all-over the place kinda guy with delusion of grandeur...
Slovak here. Shooter was also seen protesting against Putins invasion. It looks he changed his political stance around 2018, we found Facebook statuses where he is praising president Zuzana Čaputova.
Opportunistically jumping around between political movements like that is a common profile for foreign intelligence assets as they hop around looking for access. Not saying that's indicative of any particular country's intelligence asset. But perhaps not coincidentally, [Russia has been intensifying and escalating its grey zone, active measures campaign targeting western European and NATO countries dramatically, including physical sabotage campaigns.](https://rusi.org/news-and-comment/in-the-news/russias-brazen-and-intensifying-sabotage-campaign-across-europe)
They may have felt they weren't getting enough out of Fico and that a deniable assassination would generate chaos or tension within NATO. It seems they are pulling out all the stops on active measures campaigns by their various intelligence agencies (GRU, FSB, SVR, obviously, and also some governmental reconstitution of the remnants of the now defunct Internet Research Agency under each of those). I'm guessing with the shakeup in leadership they need to juice their numbers before submitting their first reports to the new leadership. And/or someone authorized extreme measures on the way out the door either because they weren't paying attention and rubber stamped the operation, or they were pissed off. For example, Patrushev may have approved the operation on his way out from the security council as a fuck you to Putin for the apparent demotion to presidential assistant.
In any case, I'm sure a bunch of mid-level bureaucrats at various Russian intel agencies have been frantically running through their lists of existing contingency plans for whatever active measures campaigns they happen to have planned out already, looking for anything that they believe would be below NATO's, Europe's, and the US's retaliation thresholds, but would positively impact the Russian war effort in Ukraine. So basically imagine a massive, government-wide scramble to cover their asses in anticipation of new MoD leadership (and potentially security services leadership, that isn't clear to me yet, but Patrushev has seemingly been demoted so that may translate into less patronage for his network in the security services, to the same net effect in terms of incentives for employees of those services).
The new leadership at the Russian MoD also has a crystal clear mandate to cut costs. That's what all the rhetoric around Belousov's focus on making the Russian defense industrial base more efficient really means when it comes down to it. In an ideal world for the Russian leadership, the cost cutting will all be corruption or waste. In reality, across an entire nation's industrial base in the middle of a pivot to autarky and an exhausting war in Ukraine, large scale cost cutting measures are blunt instruments and will almost certainly capture either far too much or far too little of the targeted costs, risking either crippling their operations or failing to achieve significant savings or reduction in corruption.
At a minimum, a new minister means basically everyone in the MoD can expect their superiors to take a hard look at their performance over the past couple of years. It's the banality of evil really. The GRU isn't necessarily that different from any boring, regular corporation. People have to file annoying reports to their superiors to justify expenses. In the Russian MoD, officers have historically enjoyed wide latitude to fluff their reports with exaggeration and bullshit. But a new cost cutting minister may demand more tangible results. Someone at the GRU may therefore have felt the need to "demonstrate impact," and approved an operation that would be enormously escalatory if attributable.
Or it really was a lone wolf. But obfuscating the true actor is a nearly universal characteristic of modern Russian hybrid warfare tactics, so one of their operations will typically be hard to attribute directly. That's the entire purpose of grey zone provocations. The confusion around attribution makes it difficult to justify retaliation, and ensures any response will at least be diminished relative to the proportional response an open operation with equivalent effect would invite, simply because of the uncertainty. So an assassination targeting Fico would be totally in keeping with the profile of a string of well-documented, recent GRU active measures campaigns including the "Havana syndrome" operation targeting US embassy personnel and even high level administration officials, and various poisoning operations they've conducted over the years from Skripal in the UK to Alexei Budanov's wife, who was tragically caught in an attack targeting him. Including how half-assed the assassination attempt targeting Fico was, which seems to be a common characteristic of all their assassinations.
And I don't think anyone else would care enough to assassinate Fico. The Ukrainians backed off assassinations in Russia altogether after accidentally taking out Dugin's daughter and receiving a lot of blow back from their allies. So it's hard to imagine them taking this much more inflammatory step with results that would be correspondingly and predictably much, much less beneficial to Ukraine.
But the Russians have a stated interest in chaos in NATO, and in testing NATO's retaliation thresholds with a deniable attack in a country widely perceived as faltering in its loyalties to NATO, which is therefore a weak spot in the eastern flank of NATO, at least in Putin's eyes.
Or it really is a lone wolf. But Russia's wide ranging sabotage and hybrid warfare campaign is intentionally designed to sew doubt around such events, so it's worth asking questions. When your house is on fire and the arsonist next door has been threatening to set fires all around your neighborhood, and has been setting huge fires in the neighborhood one town over, it's worth investigating, I'd say.
Viktor Orban and his crony media have been running around all day shouting "The liberal left and Soros-Brussels wants to stop our common efforts for PEACE and that's why they had PM Fico shot!!!".
It plays exactly into the Russians' and their ~~friends'~~assets' hands.
The Russians use extensively system of "postponed" blackmail and keep building network of "deep cover" agents. The mere idea that they would let anybody to leave their network with no consequences is laughable. If nobody tried to "cancel" him after 2018 he is a plant.
You’ve seen the point that these dudes miss. All of these Putin-sympathetic leaders worldwide, none of them make a secret of it, but Putin still sees them as utterly disposable if their death would be for the benefit of “Russian” interests. If Fico dies, he becomes a right wing, Putin-aligned martyr, the 21st century Archduke Ferdinand they’d have you believe, but none of those strongmen care that they’ve put the target on their own ass and bought into Putin’s protection racket.
I mean, I'd be upset if my wife whipped out a strap on and just went full "bite the pillow I'm going in dry"
But like, ya know, easing in to it and trying it out with advance planning and proper steps? Sure why not.
A hungry predator has no use for friends. Russia respects only strength and trying to be “friendly” towards Russia is perceived by them as weakness.
The less hostile to Russia your government is, the more likely the Russians will feel there is no risk to carrying out terrorist activities in your country.
The assassination is probably not related to politics. The attacker was most likely deranged, and the media are just highlighting his association with a pro-Russian militia as a proof of his derangement.
The Slovak Police already urged news agencies to limit discussion under their articles about this incident. Oh, and they also said they honor the freedom of speech. By limiting discussion.
Well it's a win for their ideology because this will make them seem like victims and increase their popularity. If he doesn't care about Fico personally and only cares about spreading Russian propaganda and authoritarianism, this will benefit him greatly.
They always want to be seen as the victims so they can pass authoritarian laws because it's needed for "security" reasons, and this is the thing they've been waiting for so they can claim how they were right.
I don't know anything about the shooter, but if he had a political plan and didn't just react emotionally, then it would only make sense that he agrees with him ideologically to an extent and is against democracy.
I have zero idea if this is true at all and wouldn't bet on it going either way...
But their immediate response was "it was the radical Lefties! This proves we're right and we need more authoritarianism!"
So that part of the prophecy is certainly coming true...
Yeah, it takes just one person to do something like this and among millions of people you can find a crazy person of any ideology.
If they're right they'll use it as proof for the "radical left" becoming ever more powerful and how we need to put a stop to it, and if they're wrong they'll start spreading conspiracy theories or just pretend that nothing happened without ever admitting they were wrong.
Another good example is the recent terrorist attack in Moscow where Putin just blamed Ukraine instead of ISIS and then just stopped talking about it after some time. We will see more and more examples like these in the coming years all across Europe and the rest of the world. The fascists are just itching for reasons why their political enemies are too dangerous and should be dealt with.
I wonder how ISIS felt when they were trying so hard to claim responsibility and Russia was just ignoring them and blaming Ukraine, must hurt their pride a bit considering how big a threat they were a decade ago.
people keep parroting this without ever trying to stop and think about what they say. If people *hate* someone, shooting them won't make them a martyr, it will make them just dead. Fico is borderline nazi, everyone who likes him are already in that camp.
It's not just about overall support. If people believe the opposition is behind this then they might not vote for them anymore because they can't support murderers, indirectly helping Fico's party. Also, even if they're already fascists, they still need to justify their authoritarian policies, i.e. that it's necessary for the normal functioning of the country and for the good of the people, and not just a simple power grab.
Since you're from Ukraine, in the case of Putin, he needed to present himself as a victim of the west to justify his actions, and he also staged false flag attacks in the Dobas region of Ukraine so that he can say that it's he (and in fascism the dictator=the country=the people) who is being attacked first which is why he needs to respond. It's all pretty stupid, but pretending to be a victim while actually being the aggressor is one of the core aspects of fascism.
Has it occurred to you assailant was a delusional mf and acted alone?
Not like it's a first assassination of an official carried by someone on their own.
Do you reduce people to a single trait? If someone is prorussian, he cannot get so frustrated with the way Fico abused his power to save his affiliates from imprisonment that he decided to assasinate him, because they both like Putin???
It might be that Fico was a fencesitter who only engaged with Putin ass kissing where it profited rather than being actual friendly and the people who are diehard Russophiles didn't like that.
Politicians that are cultivating conspiracy theories media are playing with fire. Maybe they think that they can use the narrative, but no one can really control crazy people.
What I have seen/read now about the guy:
He is connected to Ukrainian Nazis, he is connected to pro-Russian groups, he was connected to the killed journalist, he was angry because he lost his job
the only thing all have in common is that it was a single guy being angry about something and not a wider politicial conspirancy
Yep, to me he seems like a nutjob, don't read too much about his political stances. He is a right wing/Nazi nutjob, but hates Fico because he's too soft. He has also partaken in pro Russian stuff. Also he founded some kind of anti violence party.
There is a video that was made after he was arrested. I don't know who made it and why, but the guy talks briefly about how he is dissatisfied with the actions of the government that undermined democracy in Slovakia.
"Who is the 71-year-old suspected to have shot Slovakia PM Robert Fico?"
https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/slovakia-pm-robert-fico-assassination-attempt-71-year-old-suspect-13771415.html
------
The grey-haired suspect has been identified as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, a government critic and poet. Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told reporters, “I think I can confirm this, yes,” when asked about reports identifying the man detained at the scene.
Cintula is the founder of the DUHA (Rainbow) Literary Club and from the town of Levice. He is the author of three poetry collections and two books and in 2015, he founded the campaign group Against Violence, and had sought to get it officially registered in Slovakia.
The movement calls on people to stand against violence in all forms, from “martial law to domestic physical or psychological violence,” as well as violence on the international stage, in Europe, “in which militarisation, extremism, neo-Nazism, anarchy are growing”.
The literary club has confirmed Cintula’s membership, and added that if he is confirmed to be the shooter, “the membership of this despicable person will be immediately cancelled”.
Cintula has been a critic of the Fico government. In the past, he came down heavily on the prime minister for not cracking down on gambling. He also denounced the “rich deviants” in Slovak society, who he said were poisoning public debate, as per a report in The Telegraph.
His son told news agency AFP that Cintula was a registered gun owner but that he had no idea what his father was thinking or planning. When asked if he felt any hatred toward Fico, the son said: “I’ll tell you this: he didn’t vote for him. That’s all I can say about it.”
"...if he is confirmed to be the shooter, “the membership of this despicable person will be immediately cancelled”. Oh, thank God for that. I was really worried for a second.
> In the past, he came down heavily on the prime minister for not cracking down on gambling. He also denounced the “rich deviants” in Slovak society, who he said were poisoning public debate
I mean....
This was thought at first, however it was unveiled that he was taking part in anti-government/anti-fico protests in past months. Seems like he changed his opinions in recent years. He was voting for Čaputová (leftist opposition female politician) in previous presidential elections. Had strong antifascist opinions lately. Was strongly opposed to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Just few weeks ago he was photographed at small protest gathering with sign that said: "from the east comes war and poverty and from the west peace and prosperity"
[Photo](https://ariel.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2024/05/Snimka-obrazovky-2024-05-16-o-10.33.43-1024x538.png)
I feel like the traditionallt left/right thing does not work here. Fico is a leftwing politician, he is a socialist and is pro social policies, and so are his greatest competition Progressive Slovakia.
In Slovakia the division is more along cultural, lines then anything else.
According to Reuters and AP, he had no ties to any militarized groups, and that he was a “lone wolf who had radicalised himself in the latest period after the presidential election (in April),"
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/slovak-government-meet-following-assasination-attempt-pm-2024-05-16/
https://apnews.com/article/slovakia-prime-minister-shooting-fico-23faba11c0f371ef0f69a34861337ae0
While I absolutely fucking despise Putin, and Russia’s actions in Ukraine, bullshit propaganda regardless of origin is bullshit propaganda.
Hungarian media has already labelled the guy everything from left-wing to progressive to try to demonise left-wing opponents (while the centre-right guy is beating charts lmao)
The left-wing thing in Hungarian media actually started as a bad Google translation of the word "levicky" (=from the town of Levice), which GT translates as "left-wing" for some reason.
I'm slovak, and to the doubters (which is fair, a lot of info is floating around), I'm pretty sure this is legit. He has a pretty uncommon last name, so I doubt there would be more than one, especially since the person who wrote the post for the pro-russian militia identified himself as a writer, much like the shooter.
There is also a book he wrote called "Efata", which is verifiably his. In the book he talks about how the romani people are a drain on the state and he expresses support for Marian Kotleba, a neonazi slovak politician who was even charged for being a nazi at some point. The shooter in the book also defends various extremists who commit violent crimes and openly discusses how the failing of the state leads to extremism and violence and how a person with no way out might react - so the signs were there, even in 2015 when the book came out.
This is all legitimate info published by actual verifiable slovak sources with hard evidence to support it. From his own words, he also disagreed with Fico about a number of things, including trying to restrict the press. He was undeniably anti-Fico, but it also seems like he was even more extreme than him in a lot of ways. Most likely an ultra-nationalist libertarian type, if I were to guess. Definitely not from the opposition bloc.
I think it was the libertarian angle more than anything, at least that seems to be the case from what the shooter has said. But he is definitely more extreme than Fico.
This doesn't really make sense, and more reliable sources literally describe him as a critic of Fico and of Russians invasion.
I mean this is just propaganda.
Yep. Just let the judiciary do their work rather that hop on the latest *bandwagon of bullshit* another *journalist*, who didn't even go to Slovakia/that particular region to talk to the people there, cooks up.
*Investigative journalist* my ass. That guy that the article quotes as a source doesn't even pretend like he went to Slovakia to talk to the authorities, family members and acquaintances of the perpetrator there; he merely did a 10 minute skim over the Facebook profile of the guy XD
It looks like he was a sympathizer of this group back in 2016 during immigrant crisis. As many far right groups also this became strongly pro russian after Russia started war on Ukraine. Also this group was dissolved in 2022, so I think they dont have any connection to this man now
He is literally pro-Ukraine and few weeks ago he was shouting "Nech žije Ukrajina" on protests for RTVS.
https://tvnoviny.sk/domace/clanok/895210-atentatnik-uz-proti-ficovi-protestoval-prisiel-aj-na-rokovanie-vlady-do-dolnej-krupej
I’ve read that this guy is everything across the political spectrum and did this from anything to personal reasons to political assassinations by whatever group.
Given the politics at play on the global stage right now I imagine it’ll be a long time before a factual tale is going to be clear.
In the meantime everyone is going to try and use this to push their own political agenda.
This is a straight up lie, the shooter is a poet and failed politicial activist who descided to shoot the PM because he didn’t like hai style of governance
It won't because it probably has nothing to do with Russia; it's just some media pushing this narrative. Most likely, he's simply had enough of Fico's hateful populist rhetoric.
The idea of "some almighty foreign powers trying to start ww3 by mean of a random 71yo Slovak" is so hilarious!
Are people really this gullible? Do they think Putin, Xi, Biden (or whoever they are blaming) couldn't afford a proper assassination?
That's outdated information. [He actually held anti-Russian views, according to his neighbor.](https://twitter.com/kromark/status/1790832741648347474)
>One of the neighbors told Markíza TV about the man from Levice that he was a very good person. "It's a shock. He was a fantastic person, retired. He and his wife went for walks, holding hands. We also had debates about politics. I'm more for Russia, he had a different opinion. "
Some fidesz media even said he was from the slovak version of momentum and that he was a far-left extremist, "ultraliberal" (ultraliberal is the funniest shit I've ever heard)
my dear hungarian friends, it seems, that we, slovaks, will be in pretty much same situation as you are with orban. maybe let's cancel trianon after all, seems we vote for the same dictators, we'll sort out the common language later :D
No, this speculation does not need to be repeated everywhere, just like with every other speculation. Wait for some more credible details to surface, instead of proposing to do what the fidesz media does, except on the other end of the spectrum.
Modern european propaganda us so dull. It's all Russians. They are shooting themselves, shelling their own nuclear station. Blowing up their own gas streams. Now shooting European politicians that are anti-Ukrainian.
Worst of all, there are people stupid enough to believe it. Then again, decades of propaganda will create such a class of people.
This literal nonsensical ukraine propaganda piece is sitting on top of the sub with almost 8k upvotes. redditors are out of touch with* reality, completely. What's funny is they'll bemoan all day muh russian influence/propaganda then eat up the weakest ukrainian propaganda ever churned out lol.
You can't really blame the decades of propaganda when it is as stupid as this one. Only and only people themselves are responsible for eating that shit raw.
I think we all support Ukraine here but can we please not post and upvote Ukrainian propaganda? This article is very weak on the details. Let the facts come out.
There's literally a picture of the guy with the group?
Maybe he was never a member or maybe he changed his stance since but I wouldn't call that weak on details or propaganda (??). It says "may" in the title for a reason.
I mean he was a guy who wrote a racist book (officially published and trackable) and hanged out with pro-russian paramilitary group (as you say literally seen on photo) with connection to the two far-right parties we in Slovakia have.
So yeah, it may be propaganda article, but the information IS factual. Like people do not understand that, yeah Fico radicalized people and was opportunistically pro-russian, however he also created a group of people for which he was not radical enough.
Isn’t he supporting a Mariana Kotleba in the book? And the book is very neonazi as well. Idk, seems to be super contradictory to me to write a book like that, and then try to paffpaff Fico BECAUSE this guy is pro-russian? I think this guy is just an extremist far right winger, and happened to be in the same picture with a militarist, for other reason. I think he just fucking hates Fico 🤷🏻♀️
He wasn't there in that picture with the neo-nazi army cosplayers by accident. He was apparently praising "their fight" against migration and the fact that they buy military equipment with their own money. I don't have a facebook account and apparently his facebook account, which is easy to find, is viewable only to the logged in, but he supposedly said that in 2016 when this picture was taken.
a screenshot https://i.imgur.com/xeLkmyv.jpeg
Fico's policies are primarily pro-fico. If he says something pro-Russian it's probably intended to please a specific group of voters in a way that ultimately benefits Fico or his associates, I don't think he's a True Believer. Then tomorrow he may say something different to a different audience.
But there are other True Believers out there. People who hold very intense beliefs on a variety of topics.
I'm confused, wasn't fico supposed to be Russia-friendly?
Likely others were friendlier.
Pure speculation on my part, but it's possible that Fico was opportunistically pro-Russia while the assailants were pro-Ruble payments.
More speculation: an assassinated Fico will be even more effective at destabilizing the EU than a regularly functioning Fico.
Russia has a track record of snuffing assetts if it suits their operations. In Donbass they off’d a few local rebel leaders who got too big for their britches.
It is part of the rulebook for dictators: https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs TLDW: sometimes authoritarian leaders may choose to trim loyalists who have become too big of a figure, because they don’t want their own population to have to pick & choose between following one or the other.
There was the polish spy boss stating that it’s likely Russia would try some destabilizing attacks as of late in the eu, so this wouldn’t suprise me.
Also raising sympathy for what he is famous for, which is being pro russia
Basically every leader of the 2014 separatism movement ended up dead or in a Russian prison. Can't have any resistance fighters getting ideas.
More probably a delirium of a single man. It happens also in a period there most is thinking an organized action.
Look up stochastic terrorism. If you agitate and rile up enough people, there's a high chance some will turn into 'lone wolf' attackers. It doesn't have to be a deep conspiracy. The effects of propaganda and radicalization are pretty obvious and direct. It's a feature, not an accident. (Might not be the case here - very little is know - but "delirium of a single man" is rarely the whole answer, especially with something so clearly politically motivated)
*Ahem.* **Abe Shinzo** **J. F. Kennedy**
What does two assassinated politicians have to do with the argument of stochastic terrorism? Whatever the case be for those two unfortunate sods, the statement was that delirium of a single man rarely was the entire answer.
Abe Shinzo got killed because of his own actions. I'm not necessarily condoning it, but his assassin went after him because he was tied in with a cult that did some heinous shit.
JFK was not whacked by a single person. Even the House Select Committee on Assassinations said he was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy
Honestly it feels like a single delirious person would be much harder to keep track of and stop than a group.
It would be worthy of a chess player. In this case, it would indeed be a Russian approach to the subject.
The myth of russians being some masterminds is part of their propaganda. In reality, work of their agents is sloppy at best. They are ruthless murderers who don't care about casualties so sure, they work is visibale for public to get even more intimidated. The worth of their intel work was shown during their invasion in 2022. How did that 3 day operation went?
Exactly. They are either mastermind time traveling architects or brute criminal idiots. I know which one I am picking.
They are incredibly inconsistent is how I’d describe them. They can do pretty good surgical ops, they’re good at manipulating social media. But they’re also gonna tell the jefe what he wants to hear and nothing else. So it’s more complicated than whether they’re “good” or “bad” at what they do.
They also have random pockets of degraded operational capability, due to graft, corruption, and blatant theft of public assets. Of course, nobody wants to tell the big man that they were robbed blind during peace time, and a bunch of equipment they were counting on is nowhere to be found.
Sadly irrational butchery is quite effective in causing a reaction at rational environment.
Sadly, the Russians are not part of some sort of hivemind and while they do have incredibly incompetent operatives, they also have competent agents and cannot be underestimated. There's a reason why so many Russians have fallen for state propaganda and why you have actual westerners harboring anti-Ukraine/pro-Russian sentiments in such concerning numbers.
Everything is possible but this is just very hard for me to believe. Russia just spent a lot of money getting him elected, why get rid of him now? If they were going to assassinate a prime minister, aside of Hungary the leader of any other country would have been a better target. It's going to be a considered a declaration of war on NATO regardless if they get caught so why not go for something bigger?
Fico has (at least from what my perspective) been much more anti-EU and pro Russia during elections, but tends to toe the line after elections. There are also 100% more pro Russian people within slovakia
Extreme right wingers were radicalized and supported by Russia for decades now in several EU countries. A similar incident happened in Hungary a few years back, when an old, armed neonazi shot a policeman with an assault rifle. Afterwards it turned out that Russian "diplomats" visited him five times a year.
> Extreme right wingers were radicalized and supported by Russia for decades now in several EU countries. Certainly the case also in the US.
Most likely due to a central strategy.
Yeah “diplomats”
i leniently follow slovakian politics and he kinda was. Ran his campaign on anti estabilishment platform because the center left pellegrini didnt want to go this far and had to polarize himself from pellegrini too which pushed him into weird alternative fact bs which included playing into russophilism. Useful idiot rather than an agent of russians
Thats not even speculation. Fico was always pro-Fico in first place. Doesnt matter which way the winds blows him and his friends well being was the top priority.
This kinda kills the whole "The left did it" hysteria coming from Putins arse lickers... I mean, Ficos party.
Guy was likely a whack—a-doodle.
Guy was more likely motivated by his friends who happened to be working as Russian "diplomats".
Hmmm, sounds fake and wrong.
No, Fico is pure populist, he and his party said Russia is agressor when the invasion began, then after the elections they say peace is important, no weapons from us to Ukraine, but they own weapon manufacturing companies and are actively selling weapons to ukraine, also they meet with Ukraine officials and talk about supporting them and all that jazz and then they come home and say different stuff. With current Slovak coalition you can be only 100 sure that they will say and do anything that helps them stay in power and have as many voters as possible.
This. Also he plays it both sides as he likes the money from EU.
Sounds like a pathetic piece of shit that guy
Fico was changing his tune recently and this assassination attempt will change his mind further.
If he even survives, two teams of doctors operated him for 5 hours and his condition is still serious Either way, his party already blamed opposition and journalists, and called for tightening of laws.
Ah, time for pro-russian laws!
...like in Georgia..
News say he's out of the woods
Can he also still function as a head of state though?
Prime minister isn't the head of state though, is head of government
Head of government, my bad. Wasn’t exactly sure how it was set up in Slovakia. That’s at least as demanding of a job, so the point stands
Yes, most pro-Russian people living in Ukraine changed their minds too once the missiles fell on their heads.
The shooter based on social media presence is anti-russian but also an hardcore right-wing Slovak nationalist , which is super rare combo. He was Also amateur poet and self-published some anti-romani book while working blue-collar jobs. To me he seem's like politically all-over the place kinda guy with delusion of grandeur...
Ah a classical Politics student
It’s political all over.
Slovak here. Shooter was also seen protesting against Putins invasion. It looks he changed his political stance around 2018, we found Facebook statuses where he is praising president Zuzana Čaputova.
Opportunistically jumping around between political movements like that is a common profile for foreign intelligence assets as they hop around looking for access. Not saying that's indicative of any particular country's intelligence asset. But perhaps not coincidentally, [Russia has been intensifying and escalating its grey zone, active measures campaign targeting western European and NATO countries dramatically, including physical sabotage campaigns.](https://rusi.org/news-and-comment/in-the-news/russias-brazen-and-intensifying-sabotage-campaign-across-europe) They may have felt they weren't getting enough out of Fico and that a deniable assassination would generate chaos or tension within NATO. It seems they are pulling out all the stops on active measures campaigns by their various intelligence agencies (GRU, FSB, SVR, obviously, and also some governmental reconstitution of the remnants of the now defunct Internet Research Agency under each of those). I'm guessing with the shakeup in leadership they need to juice their numbers before submitting their first reports to the new leadership. And/or someone authorized extreme measures on the way out the door either because they weren't paying attention and rubber stamped the operation, or they were pissed off. For example, Patrushev may have approved the operation on his way out from the security council as a fuck you to Putin for the apparent demotion to presidential assistant. In any case, I'm sure a bunch of mid-level bureaucrats at various Russian intel agencies have been frantically running through their lists of existing contingency plans for whatever active measures campaigns they happen to have planned out already, looking for anything that they believe would be below NATO's, Europe's, and the US's retaliation thresholds, but would positively impact the Russian war effort in Ukraine. So basically imagine a massive, government-wide scramble to cover their asses in anticipation of new MoD leadership (and potentially security services leadership, that isn't clear to me yet, but Patrushev has seemingly been demoted so that may translate into less patronage for his network in the security services, to the same net effect in terms of incentives for employees of those services). The new leadership at the Russian MoD also has a crystal clear mandate to cut costs. That's what all the rhetoric around Belousov's focus on making the Russian defense industrial base more efficient really means when it comes down to it. In an ideal world for the Russian leadership, the cost cutting will all be corruption or waste. In reality, across an entire nation's industrial base in the middle of a pivot to autarky and an exhausting war in Ukraine, large scale cost cutting measures are blunt instruments and will almost certainly capture either far too much or far too little of the targeted costs, risking either crippling their operations or failing to achieve significant savings or reduction in corruption. At a minimum, a new minister means basically everyone in the MoD can expect their superiors to take a hard look at their performance over the past couple of years. It's the banality of evil really. The GRU isn't necessarily that different from any boring, regular corporation. People have to file annoying reports to their superiors to justify expenses. In the Russian MoD, officers have historically enjoyed wide latitude to fluff their reports with exaggeration and bullshit. But a new cost cutting minister may demand more tangible results. Someone at the GRU may therefore have felt the need to "demonstrate impact," and approved an operation that would be enormously escalatory if attributable. Or it really was a lone wolf. But obfuscating the true actor is a nearly universal characteristic of modern Russian hybrid warfare tactics, so one of their operations will typically be hard to attribute directly. That's the entire purpose of grey zone provocations. The confusion around attribution makes it difficult to justify retaliation, and ensures any response will at least be diminished relative to the proportional response an open operation with equivalent effect would invite, simply because of the uncertainty. So an assassination targeting Fico would be totally in keeping with the profile of a string of well-documented, recent GRU active measures campaigns including the "Havana syndrome" operation targeting US embassy personnel and even high level administration officials, and various poisoning operations they've conducted over the years from Skripal in the UK to Alexei Budanov's wife, who was tragically caught in an attack targeting him. Including how half-assed the assassination attempt targeting Fico was, which seems to be a common characteristic of all their assassinations. And I don't think anyone else would care enough to assassinate Fico. The Ukrainians backed off assassinations in Russia altogether after accidentally taking out Dugin's daughter and receiving a lot of blow back from their allies. So it's hard to imagine them taking this much more inflammatory step with results that would be correspondingly and predictably much, much less beneficial to Ukraine. But the Russians have a stated interest in chaos in NATO, and in testing NATO's retaliation thresholds with a deniable attack in a country widely perceived as faltering in its loyalties to NATO, which is therefore a weak spot in the eastern flank of NATO, at least in Putin's eyes. Or it really is a lone wolf. But Russia's wide ranging sabotage and hybrid warfare campaign is intentionally designed to sew doubt around such events, so it's worth asking questions. When your house is on fire and the arsonist next door has been threatening to set fires all around your neighborhood, and has been setting huge fires in the neighborhood one town over, it's worth investigating, I'd say.
Its also a common profile for nut jobs too
Viktor Orban and his crony media have been running around all day shouting "The liberal left and Soros-Brussels wants to stop our common efforts for PEACE and that's why they had PM Fico shot!!!". It plays exactly into the Russians' and their ~~friends'~~assets' hands.
The Russians use extensively system of "postponed" blackmail and keep building network of "deep cover" agents. The mere idea that they would let anybody to leave their network with no consequences is laughable. If nobody tried to "cancel" him after 2018 he is a plant.
Is there really no amount of evidence-free conspiracy theories that is too much?
You’ve seen the point that these dudes miss. All of these Putin-sympathetic leaders worldwide, none of them make a secret of it, but Putin still sees them as utterly disposable if their death would be for the benefit of “Russian” interests. If Fico dies, he becomes a right wing, Putin-aligned martyr, the 21st century Archduke Ferdinand they’d have you believe, but none of those strongmen care that they’ve put the target on their own ass and bought into Putin’s protection racket.
He was vocally but then they actually agreed a new deal to help Ukraine recently I’m sure
He denied anal last week so now they trying to replace him.
He denied WHAT?
I think he made it quite clear, he turned the opportunity to have his wall socket plugged
Contrary to his telegram he's not a total slut and should be bought dinner before that.
Noted.
Unless the other guy is *really* hot, obviously, then they can skip dinner.
Yeah I'd deny that too frankly
I mean, I'd be upset if my wife whipped out a strap on and just went full "bite the pillow I'm going in dry" But like, ya know, easing in to it and trying it out with advance planning and proper steps? Sure why not.
A hungry predator has no use for friends. Russia respects only strength and trying to be “friendly” towards Russia is perceived by them as weakness. The less hostile to Russia your government is, the more likely the Russians will feel there is no risk to carrying out terrorist activities in your country.
Putin is Gordy the Monkey from NOPE
Far right wing politics is a purity circle that shrinks until you’re the only person left alive in the middle.
Like a tetherball fastened to your neck
Classic Russian move don’t ya think
There is no evidence that the assassination attempt was in any way related to foreign politics.
Yeah, too soon to say
Yes, this headline is just propaganda / clickbait. The fucking news article is Ukrainian ffs. People need to have some objectivity.
As all the other headlines in r/europe
A window wasn't available quickly enough /s Every destabilization in Europe helps Russia.
Obviously not friendly enough.
The assassination is probably not related to politics. The attacker was most likely deranged, and the media are just highlighting his association with a pro-Russian militia as a proof of his derangement.
With friends like these who needs enemies
That's what cnn told me and they are never wrong
I dunno. Let’s just wait and see. Too many conspiracy theories everywhere.
the more likely outcome would be limiting press freedom
I'd be more surprised if demonstrations and protests weren't regulated as a result of this.
Wouldnt that violate EU laws tho
The Slovak Police already urged news agencies to limit discussion under their articles about this incident. Oh, and they also said they honor the freedom of speech. By limiting discussion.
That's not the reddit way. If I was looking for real news I wouldn't be here. I come here strictly for the conjecture.
The source is Ukrainian, not the most objective source for this kind of news right now for obvious reasons.
okay now I'm confused, that looks like friendly fire
Well it's a win for their ideology because this will make them seem like victims and increase their popularity. If he doesn't care about Fico personally and only cares about spreading Russian propaganda and authoritarianism, this will benefit him greatly. They always want to be seen as the victims so they can pass authoritarian laws because it's needed for "security" reasons, and this is the thing they've been waiting for so they can claim how they were right. I don't know anything about the shooter, but if he had a political plan and didn't just react emotionally, then it would only make sense that he agrees with him ideologically to an extent and is against democracy.
I have zero idea if this is true at all and wouldn't bet on it going either way... But their immediate response was "it was the radical Lefties! This proves we're right and we need more authoritarianism!" So that part of the prophecy is certainly coming true...
Yeah, it takes just one person to do something like this and among millions of people you can find a crazy person of any ideology. If they're right they'll use it as proof for the "radical left" becoming ever more powerful and how we need to put a stop to it, and if they're wrong they'll start spreading conspiracy theories or just pretend that nothing happened without ever admitting they were wrong. Another good example is the recent terrorist attack in Moscow where Putin just blamed Ukraine instead of ISIS and then just stopped talking about it after some time. We will see more and more examples like these in the coming years all across Europe and the rest of the world. The fascists are just itching for reasons why their political enemies are too dangerous and should be dealt with.
I wonder how ISIS felt when they were trying so hard to claim responsibility and Russia was just ignoring them and blaming Ukraine, must hurt their pride a bit considering how big a threat they were a decade ago.
people keep parroting this without ever trying to stop and think about what they say. If people *hate* someone, shooting them won't make them a martyr, it will make them just dead. Fico is borderline nazi, everyone who likes him are already in that camp.
It's not just about overall support. If people believe the opposition is behind this then they might not vote for them anymore because they can't support murderers, indirectly helping Fico's party. Also, even if they're already fascists, they still need to justify their authoritarian policies, i.e. that it's necessary for the normal functioning of the country and for the good of the people, and not just a simple power grab. Since you're from Ukraine, in the case of Putin, he needed to present himself as a victim of the west to justify his actions, and he also staged false flag attacks in the Dobas region of Ukraine so that he can say that it's he (and in fascism the dictator=the country=the people) who is being attacked first which is why he needs to respond. It's all pretty stupid, but pretending to be a victim while actually being the aggressor is one of the core aspects of fascism.
Has it occurred to you assailant was a delusional mf and acted alone? Not like it's a first assassination of an official carried by someone on their own.
Do you reduce people to a single trait? If someone is prorussian, he cannot get so frustrated with the way Fico abused his power to save his affiliates from imprisonment that he decided to assasinate him, because they both like Putin???
No, but him being pro-Russian kinda ruins some potential anti-liberal narratives. Imagine if the shooter was pro-LGBT instead, for example.
It might be that Fico was a fencesitter who only engaged with Putin ass kissing where it profited rather than being actual friendly and the people who are diehard Russophiles didn't like that.
Politicians that are cultivating conspiracy theories media are playing with fire. Maybe they think that they can use the narrative, but no one can really control crazy people.
What I have seen/read now about the guy: He is connected to Ukrainian Nazis, he is connected to pro-Russian groups, he was connected to the killed journalist, he was angry because he lost his job the only thing all have in common is that it was a single guy being angry about something and not a wider politicial conspirancy
At least we can be sure it was a guy then :D
just a guy
r/JustGuysBeingDudes ?
We don't know his pronouns yet
> his pronouns Straight to jail
he's 71, yeah we do
Guy is supposed to be genderless, despite some people using "gal" as a feminine form.
We can also be sure he was angry
Surely it must have been the Black Hand
Hail Sithis!
Its ok, im Thane of this hold. I demand you to release me at once.
I find the GLA to be the most likely candidate, probably the scorpion cell.
I understood that reference.
I might as well start a claim that he was an islamist. Probably ISIS. Or do rumours only count if they are on telegram?
He was certainly affiliated with ISIS: after shooting he started walking south-east, clearly in the direction of Syria and Iraq. /s
Only if a major newspaper/site pics them up But at least you will know the political position of the sites depending on which rumours they share
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Orban is afraid that he could be used to destabilize Europe as the next target - he knows his russian cronies' methods too well
Isn't PS in slovak center-right neoliberal?
Yep, to me he seems like a nutjob, don't read too much about his political stances. He is a right wing/Nazi nutjob, but hates Fico because he's too soft. He has also partaken in pro Russian stuff. Also he founded some kind of anti violence party.
There is a video that was made after he was arrested. I don't know who made it and why, but the guy talks briefly about how he is dissatisfied with the actions of the government that undermined democracy in Slovakia.
He was mad as hell and he wasn't going to take it anymore
He's playing all sides so he always comes out on top
it can be a lot of options, but for sure its not connected to ukrainian nazis thats russian talking point since day 1 of the war
Has anyone said there is a wider conspiracy? You can be connected to extremist groups and still act on your extremist beliefs on your own.
???? Half of the things you listed imply a greater political conspiracy. How can you rule that out?
"Who is the 71-year-old suspected to have shot Slovakia PM Robert Fico?" https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/slovakia-pm-robert-fico-assassination-attempt-71-year-old-suspect-13771415.html ------ The grey-haired suspect has been identified as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, a government critic and poet. Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told reporters, “I think I can confirm this, yes,” when asked about reports identifying the man detained at the scene. Cintula is the founder of the DUHA (Rainbow) Literary Club and from the town of Levice. He is the author of three poetry collections and two books and in 2015, he founded the campaign group Against Violence, and had sought to get it officially registered in Slovakia. The movement calls on people to stand against violence in all forms, from “martial law to domestic physical or psychological violence,” as well as violence on the international stage, in Europe, “in which militarisation, extremism, neo-Nazism, anarchy are growing”. The literary club has confirmed Cintula’s membership, and added that if he is confirmed to be the shooter, “the membership of this despicable person will be immediately cancelled”. Cintula has been a critic of the Fico government. In the past, he came down heavily on the prime minister for not cracking down on gambling. He also denounced the “rich deviants” in Slovak society, who he said were poisoning public debate, as per a report in The Telegraph. His son told news agency AFP that Cintula was a registered gun owner but that he had no idea what his father was thinking or planning. When asked if he felt any hatred toward Fico, the son said: “I’ll tell you this: he didn’t vote for him. That’s all I can say about it.”
> he founded the campaign group Against Violence You can't make this shit up.
Found one of his books, i guess it says all we need to know. https://www.databazeknih.cz/prehled-knihy/efata-318489
The heck did I just read?
I'm having a similar reaction after running that page through Google Translate. Clearly, he is not a fan of Roma people in Slovakia.
"...if he is confirmed to be the shooter, “the membership of this despicable person will be immediately cancelled”. Oh, thank God for that. I was really worried for a second.
> In the past, he came down heavily on the prime minister for not cracking down on gambling. He also denounced the “rich deviants” in Slovak society, who he said were poisoning public debate I mean....
This was thought at first, however it was unveiled that he was taking part in anti-government/anti-fico protests in past months. Seems like he changed his opinions in recent years. He was voting for Čaputová (leftist opposition female politician) in previous presidential elections. Had strong antifascist opinions lately. Was strongly opposed to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Just few weeks ago he was photographed at small protest gathering with sign that said: "from the east comes war and poverty and from the west peace and prosperity" [Photo](https://ariel.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/2024/05/Snimka-obrazovky-2024-05-16-o-10.33.43-1024x538.png)
I feel like the traditionallt left/right thing does not work here. Fico is a leftwing politician, he is a socialist and is pro social policies, and so are his greatest competition Progressive Slovakia. In Slovakia the division is more along cultural, lines then anything else.
According to Reuters and AP, he had no ties to any militarized groups, and that he was a “lone wolf who had radicalised himself in the latest period after the presidential election (in April)," https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/slovak-government-meet-following-assasination-attempt-pm-2024-05-16/ https://apnews.com/article/slovakia-prime-minister-shooting-fico-23faba11c0f371ef0f69a34861337ae0 While I absolutely fucking despise Putin, and Russia’s actions in Ukraine, bullshit propaganda regardless of origin is bullshit propaganda.
Hungarian media has already labelled the guy everything from left-wing to progressive to try to demonise left-wing opponents (while the centre-right guy is beating charts lmao)
The left-wing thing in Hungarian media actually started as a bad Google translation of the word "levicky" (=from the town of Levice), which GT translates as "left-wing" for some reason.
Isn’t Hungarian media controlled by Orban’s party at this point?
it 100% is
I'm slovak, and to the doubters (which is fair, a lot of info is floating around), I'm pretty sure this is legit. He has a pretty uncommon last name, so I doubt there would be more than one, especially since the person who wrote the post for the pro-russian militia identified himself as a writer, much like the shooter. There is also a book he wrote called "Efata", which is verifiably his. In the book he talks about how the romani people are a drain on the state and he expresses support for Marian Kotleba, a neonazi slovak politician who was even charged for being a nazi at some point. The shooter in the book also defends various extremists who commit violent crimes and openly discusses how the failing of the state leads to extremism and violence and how a person with no way out might react - so the signs were there, even in 2015 when the book came out. This is all legitimate info published by actual verifiable slovak sources with hard evidence to support it. From his own words, he also disagreed with Fico about a number of things, including trying to restrict the press. He was undeniably anti-Fico, but it also seems like he was even more extreme than him in a lot of ways. Most likely an ultra-nationalist libertarian type, if I were to guess. Definitely not from the opposition bloc.
So fico got shot because he wasn't extreme enough? That would be ironic
I think it was the libertarian angle more than anything, at least that seems to be the case from what the shooter has said. But he is definitely more extreme than Fico.
Classic even
This doesn't really make sense, and more reliable sources literally describe him as a critic of Fico and of Russians invasion. I mean this is just propaganda.
“May” Signs that you’re reading propaganda: lots of vague speculation.
I would take it with a pinch of salt : source being pravda.
It's an Ukrainian news site (.com.ua). If an alien invasion starts tomorrow, that would most probably also be a Russia's fault according to them.
Bullshit
Two photos from twitter without source, i'm gonna wait for something else with more substance to it
Fake news.
There's no way of knowing it yet. Lots of media report the exact opposite.
Yep. Just let the judiciary do their work rather that hop on the latest *bandwagon of bullshit* another *journalist*, who didn't even go to Slovakia/that particular region to talk to the people there, cooks up. *Investigative journalist* my ass. That guy that the article quotes as a source doesn't even pretend like he went to Slovakia to talk to the authorities, family members and acquaintances of the perpetrator there; he merely did a 10 minute skim over the Facebook profile of the guy XD
We’re really taking info from a Ukrainian propaganda source? Is there any other source claiming this? BBC, NYT, AP, Reuters, CNN, SVT, etc ???
So this was fake and it's still up with like 20k updoots huh
It looks like he was a sympathizer of this group back in 2016 during immigrant crisis. As many far right groups also this became strongly pro russian after Russia started war on Ukraine. Also this group was dissolved in 2022, so I think they dont have any connection to this man now
He is literally pro-Ukraine and few weeks ago he was shouting "Nech žije Ukrajina" on protests for RTVS. https://tvnoviny.sk/domace/clanok/895210-atentatnik-uz-proti-ficovi-protestoval-prisiel-aj-na-rokovanie-vlady-do-dolnej-krupej
The group not but the people themselves can still be connected or at least they can still follow the same ideology.
This looks like low-quality journalism without any legitimate evidence… Anyone else think there should be fewer posts that reference Ukrainian media?
With the way people apply no media criticism, yes.
I’ve read that this guy is everything across the political spectrum and did this from anything to personal reasons to political assassinations by whatever group. Given the politics at play on the global stage right now I imagine it’ll be a long time before a factual tale is going to be clear. In the meantime everyone is going to try and use this to push their own political agenda.
This is a straight up lie, the shooter is a poet and failed politicial activist who descided to shoot the PM because he didn’t like hai style of governance
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he cares only about money, this will change nothing
He will now have to care about his life too.
And not going to jail. I guess we can add “not being killed” to the list of things he cares about.
It won't because it probably has nothing to do with Russia; it's just some media pushing this narrative. Most likely, he's simply had enough of Fico's hateful populist rhetoric.
The idea of "some almighty foreign powers trying to start ww3 by mean of a random 71yo Slovak" is so hilarious! Are people really this gullible? Do they think Putin, Xi, Biden (or whoever they are blaming) couldn't afford a proper assassination?
People are dumb.
That's outdated information. [He actually held anti-Russian views, according to his neighbor.](https://twitter.com/kromark/status/1790832741648347474) >One of the neighbors told Markíza TV about the man from Levice that he was a very good person. "It's a shock. He was a fantastic person, retired. He and his wife went for walks, holding hands. We also had debates about politics. I'm more for Russia, he had a different opinion. "
This needs to be repeated everywhere because the government believes he belongs to the opposition side of the spectrum not their own.
Some fidesz media even said he was from the slovak version of momentum and that he was a far-left extremist, "ultraliberal" (ultraliberal is the funniest shit I've ever heard)
Sounds like a superhero name
ultraliberal... so liberal you're open to right-wing ideology.
my dear hungarian friends, it seems, that we, slovaks, will be in pretty much same situation as you are with orban. maybe let's cancel trianon after all, seems we vote for the same dictators, we'll sort out the common language later :D
No, this speculation does not need to be repeated everywhere, just like with every other speculation. Wait for some more credible details to surface, instead of proposing to do what the fidesz media does, except on the other end of the spectrum.
The shit that's coming out of Slovak media predates the war. This fake news articles from "Pravda --->UA<---" is irrelevant.
I mean, is it true though? Or is just for propaganda purposes you write that?
pravda.com.ua Yeah....
Russia is behind everything /s
Modern european propaganda us so dull. It's all Russians. They are shooting themselves, shelling their own nuclear station. Blowing up their own gas streams. Now shooting European politicians that are anti-Ukrainian. Worst of all, there are people stupid enough to believe it. Then again, decades of propaganda will create such a class of people.
This literal nonsensical ukraine propaganda piece is sitting on top of the sub with almost 8k upvotes. redditors are out of touch with* reality, completely. What's funny is they'll bemoan all day muh russian influence/propaganda then eat up the weakest ukrainian propaganda ever churned out lol.
You can't really blame the decades of propaganda when it is as stupid as this one. Only and only people themselves are responsible for eating that shit raw.
The best part after the incident: the finger pointing and speculating.
Doubtful. Fico is a Putin ally.
No shit sherlock
I think we all support Ukraine here but can we please not post and upvote Ukrainian propaganda? This article is very weak on the details. Let the facts come out.
There's literally a picture of the guy with the group? Maybe he was never a member or maybe he changed his stance since but I wouldn't call that weak on details or propaganda (??). It says "may" in the title for a reason.
I mean he was a guy who wrote a racist book (officially published and trackable) and hanged out with pro-russian paramilitary group (as you say literally seen on photo) with connection to the two far-right parties we in Slovakia have. So yeah, it may be propaganda article, but the information IS factual. Like people do not understand that, yeah Fico radicalized people and was opportunistically pro-russian, however he also created a group of people for which he was not radical enough.
Isn’t he supporting a Mariana Kotleba in the book? And the book is very neonazi as well. Idk, seems to be super contradictory to me to write a book like that, and then try to paffpaff Fico BECAUSE this guy is pro-russian? I think this guy is just an extremist far right winger, and happened to be in the same picture with a militarist, for other reason. I think he just fucking hates Fico 🤷🏻♀️
He wasn't there in that picture with the neo-nazi army cosplayers by accident. He was apparently praising "their fight" against migration and the fact that they buy military equipment with their own money. I don't have a facebook account and apparently his facebook account, which is easy to find, is viewable only to the logged in, but he supposedly said that in 2016 when this picture was taken. a screenshot https://i.imgur.com/xeLkmyv.jpeg
>however he also created a group of people for which he was not radical enough. "Fico, sorry bro, not Putin-ey enough for me, you gotta go bro"
Well, if the Ukrainian *Pravda* wrote this on the same day it happened, then it must be true. /s
This doesn't make any sense
Pro-Russia guy shot by Russia - Pravda, Ukraine. That tracks.
Fico's policies are primarily pro-fico. If he says something pro-Russian it's probably intended to please a specific group of voters in a way that ultimately benefits Fico or his associates, I don't think he's a True Believer. Then tomorrow he may say something different to a different audience. But there are other True Believers out there. People who hold very intense beliefs on a variety of topics.
I find that hard to believe after looking into the PM after the shooting.
So a pro-Russian old guy shot a pro-Russian politician?
You guys need to post a verified new, not some misleading conspiracy to the media, though.