Slovakian Presidential Election Reveals Pro-Russian Disinformation Strategy & Why We Should Combat It

In Slovakia, openly pro-Russian politicians, like Prime Minister Robert Fico and now President Peter Pellegrini, have come back into power in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Fico has immediately emulated the authoritarian playbook seen in the likes of Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban. Seize state television. Take control of courts. Establish an oligarchy. In the meantime: deny, distract, and dismay the international community.

In the presidential election itself, Pellegrini and his campaign used disinformation tactics to win. For example, they presented the pro-Western candidate and former Foreign Minister of Slovakia, Ivan Korcok, as “pro-war.” They insisted that he would send Slovakians to fight in Ukraine. In reality, the president does not have any legal jurisdiction to do so; that power lies with the prime minister.

Despite using disinformation and dangerous hateful smear tactics, Fico and Pellegrini will not be held accountable. They have already lowered sentences for corruption scandals in Slovakia. This shows the importance of challenging disinformation early and effectively.

I have written about Russian disinformation extensively before on my blog, but I thought that I would briefly revisit some solutions to Russian disinformation in a shorter post to make the topic more digestible to readers.