Fico's government communicating Russian narratives – ex-Slovak defense minister

Former Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad stated this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"Putin last Sunday, as a result of a probable 'okay' from Washington on the use of ATACMS rockets with a longer range, announced that this might lead to World War III and that this is something that's against the interests of peace. […] When that happened on Sunday, Fico delivered a speech along the same lines on Monday. If you didn’t see the face of the speaker, you would think it's Putin who is saying that, not Fico," Nad said.

He also criticized current government officials for frequently participating in panel discussions in media outlets that are supported by Russia and known for spreading disinformation.

"They choose those disinformation media linked to Russia, to discuss with no opponents issues of their interest, including many times blaming on me, lying about me, about our assistance to Ukraine, our foreign and defense policy during the previous government," Nad said.

"And with this, they try to cover up the problems that they have in the government now because Fico's government is actually losing its power day after day, their parliament majority is only by one member of parliament. They don't have a good situation in economics and people feel it, so they use a Russian network of communication," he added.

Nad said it was appropriate to "close down the Russian network of disinformation media in Slovakia," while recognizing the complexity of such a step, because "we're now talking about freedom of speech."

"But if somebody is not acting in line with the law on media in Slovakia, we should do something about that, including close it down, those 'media' that the Russians support very much," Nad said.