Press
Dmitri Medvedev fuels speculation with wild theories. He suspects a conspiracy against politicians who are friendly to Russia.
Moscow – Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and ally of President Wladimir Putintook to the platform after the assassination attempt against Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico Telegram expressed with a conspiracy theory. He writes that he believes it is no coincidence that the assassination attempt on Fico targeted a man with a “sensible position toward Russia.”
Conspiracy suspected: Medvedev fuels speculation about Fico assassination attempt
Following the attack on Wednesday afternoon, the Prime Minister’s condition remains serious. The 59-year-old was shot multiple times and remained in the intensive care unit on Thursday after a five-hour emergency operation. That’s what she reports German Press Agency (dpa).
In response, Russia’s ex-president Medvedev wrote down Telegram: “Is it surprising that, for the first time in decades, an assassination attempt was made in Europe on a politician who took a sensible position towards Russia? By the way, he is by no means pro-Russian. Just a pragmatist and not a Russophobe.”
When Fico became head of government in October 2023, he stopped Slovakia’s military aid to Kiev and questioned Ukraine’s sovereignty, writes the dpa further. Most recently, his government’s reform of public broadcasting caused mass protests. Journalists’ associations and opposition representatives criticized that the reform would undermine freedom of the press.
He has been Prime Minister of Slovakia again since 2023, having held the office from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018.
Putin ally thinks Europe is weak-minded and Russophobic
Curious: If the head of government resigns for health reasons, the entire government would automatically collapse according to the Slovak constitution. That’s what she writes dpa. “The fathers of the Basic Law do not seem to have taken into account the fact that a Prime Minister cannot continue his official duties because of an assassination attempt.” As long as Fico takes a break until he fully recovers, his deputies will continue to carry out government business during this time – with Robert Kalinak as the first in line Sequence.
Robert Fico embodies the part of the European establishment, writes Medvedev, “that has not lost touch with reality and does not want its citizens to be turned into gray radioactive ash.” There are only a few people in Europe like the Slovakian Prime Minister. “And they urgently need to ensure their safety.”
![Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia and head of the United Russia party](https://www.merkur.de/assets/images/34/592/34592474-dmitri-medwedew-stellvertretender-vorsitzende-sicherheitsrat-russland-und-chef-partei-einiges-russland-OhBG.jpg)
The suspected assassins is a 71-year-old from the small town of Levice. Medvedev continues to spread his theory that his actions are the quintessence of the new Europe, “imbecilic, Russophobic, licentious and completely headless.” “Ready to throw its citizens into the furnace of selfish American politics.”
The 71-year-old is a “lone wolf,” as Slovakian Interior Minister Matus Sustaj Estoker said. He is dissatisfied with political developments in Slovakia, but is not a member of a radicalized political group, neither right-wing nor left-wing. That’s what she reports dpa.
Slovakia is strongly divided: pro-European versus nationalist
For years, Slovakia has been sharply divided into a pro-European camp, to which current President Zuzana Caputova belongs – and a nationalist camp, which includes Fico and Peter Pellegrini, according to the news agency AFP. Pelligrini had the in April Won presidential election and will become Caputova’s successor in June. The recent presidential election was marked by disinformation in online networks and verbal attacks.
![The future President of Slovakia, Peter Pellegrini (l.), with Prime Minister Robert Fico after the runoff election in Bratislava in April 2024.](https://www.merkur.de/assets/images/34/592/34592788-kuenftiger-praesident-peter-pellegrini-mit-ministerpraesident-robert-fico-nach-stichwahl-in-bratislava-april-2024-RlBG.jpg)
In his post, Medvedev describes the suspected assassin as a Bandera supporter: “Now Bandera supporters are trying to kill European leaders. It’s just the beginning!” Stepan Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalist on whom opinions differ. Many see him as a national hero for his fight for the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in World War II. Others are convinced that he is a fascist, a war criminal and a Hitler collaborator.
Russian propaganda is using Bandera for its own purposes. Vladimir Putin also justified his invasion of Ukraine by saying that Ukraine had to be liberated from the “Nazis”. “They want to fight against Russia on Ukrainian soil again – at the hands of Hitler’s successors, the Bandera supporters,” Putin said, according to the daily News.
“Medvedev’s comment is unacceptable”: more inciting than reassuring
Joel Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state for House Affairs during the Obama administration, condemned Medvedev’s comments. This is reported by the US news magazine Newsweek. “The attack on Fico was horrific and a reminder of Europe’s long history of political extremism,” Rubin said via text message on Thursday (May 16). Newsweek. It is unacceptable and should make it clear to all politicians on the continent how important it is to moderate their language. He considers Medvedev’s comment unacceptable because he intended to incite rather than calm.
Political expert Miroslav Radek warned that the attack on Fico could lead to “further radicalization of individuals and politicians in Slovakia.” “I fear that this attack will not be the last,” Radek told the news agency AFP.
A way out of the “vicious circle of hate”?
The current President Zuzana Caputova said, with a view to the political climate in Slovakia that has been heated for years, that the country must get out of the “Vicious circle of hate and “mutual accusations” come out. “What happened was an individual act, but the tense atmosphere of hatred is our collective work,” Caputova said in a joint appearance with Pellegrini.
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