Slovakia on Monday accused Russia of “undue interference” in Saturday’s elections, while the Slovak president entrusted the formation of the new government to populist Robert Fico, who opposes military aid to Ukraine and is considered pro-Russian. Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party received 23% of the vote, beating the centrist Progressive Slovakia (PS, 18%) party in Saturday’s vote.
At the same time, the country summoned a Russian diplomat after the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service spoke of Washington’s “interference” in Slovakia’s domestic politics. The Slovak Foreign Ministry protested against the statements made by Sergei Naryshkin, who “questioned the integrity of free and democratic elections in Slovakia” and described these statements as “unacceptable interference by the Russian Federation in the electoral process” in Slovakia.
The Russian embassy in Bratislava denied any interference on Monday. “Unlike some of Slovakia’s current allies, we do not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and do not participate 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 on elections abroad.”