{"id":239939,"date":"2025-02-16T06:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T06:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/16\/a-pro-ukraine-activist-is-accused-by-slovakias-leader-of-trying-to-topple-him\/"},"modified":"2025-02-16T06:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T06:48:12","slug":"a-pro-ukraine-activist-is-accused-by-slovakias-leader-of-trying-to-topple-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/16\/a-pro-ukraine-activist-is-accused-by-slovakias-leader-of-trying-to-topple-him\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pro-Ukraine Activist Is Accused by Slovakia\u2019s Leader of Trying to Topple Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/16\/multimedia\/16Slovakia-Fico-01-tkhj\/16Slovakia-Fico-01-tkhj-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A Pro-Ukraine Activist Is Accused by Slovakia\u2019s Leader of Trying to Topple Him\" title=\"A Pro-Ukraine Activist Is Accused by Slovakia\u2019s Leader of Trying to Topple Him\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hostile to Russia ever since Soviet tanks appeared near her childhood home in 1968 in what was then Czechoslovakia, the now grandmother was delighted to have her photograph taken with a soldier who was fighting Russian invaders in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe was a hero to me,\u201d Lucia Stasselova, 66, said of the soldier, whom she met two years ago in Bratislava, the capital of what is now Slovakia. \u201cEveryone wanted a picture with him. I was very happy to get one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The soldier, a commander of the Georgian Legion, a unit of volunteers fighting for Ukraine from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, was visiting Bratislava for a public discussion about the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The old picture of Ms. Stasselova, a retired charity worker, and the soldier, Mamuka Mamulashvili, has now put her in the firing line as an enemy of the state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At a recent news conference, Prime Minister Robert Fico pointed to an enlarged copy of the photograph that Ms. Stasselova had <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=6864332850262164&amp;set=pcb.6863868360308613\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">posted on her Facebook page<\/a>. He presented it as evidence that she was a ringleader in a coup plot aimed at toppling his government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Stasselova \u2014 a mother of five with 13 grandchildren, a churchgoing Roman Catholic and a founder of the Foundation for the Children of Slovakia \u2014 may seem an unlikely coup plotter. But for Mr. Fico, she fits a sinister profile: She is anti-Russia and pro-Europe, and has a long record of involvement in nongovernmental organizations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Fico, along with Prime Minister Viktor Orban in neighboring Hungary, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and other authoritarian leaders, has long been suspicious of such organizations, seeing them as agents of foreign powers, particularly the United States, meddling in their internal affairs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For these leaders, the efforts of President Trump and his adviser Elon Musk to shut down the American foreign aid agency U.S.A.I.D., which has helped fund nonprofits abroad, have been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/05\/world\/europe\/usaid-russia-putin.html?searchResultPosition=2\" title=\"\">a vindication<\/a> of their long campaign against what they see as attempts to impose a liberal, globalist agenda on their countries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/18RThGjdyx\/?mibextid=wwXIfr\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook post this past week,<\/a> Mr. Fico congratulated Mr. Musk on his dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. He accused the agency of spending \u201cseveral million dollars\u201d to support nongovernmental organizations and media outlets in Slovakia \u201cfor political purposes to deform the political system and favor certain political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Stasselova said the picture of her with the Georgian commander was \u201cthe first and last time\u201d she had met him. And she added that the children\u2019s charity she co-founded and ran for more than a decade never received a penny from U.S.A.I.D., though it did get support from a private American group, the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wkkf.org\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">W.K. Kellogg Foundation<\/a>. Nor, she continued, has there been any American funding for the organization she is currently active in, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MierUkrajine\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Peace for Ukraine,<\/a> the organizer of recent rallies in Bratislava protesting Mr. Fico\u2019s tilt toward Moscow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhy are NGOs the enemy? Because they have been fighting for democracy in this country for decades,\u201d she said, speaking at her home in a village near Bratislava.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Michal Simecka, the leader of Slovakia\u2019s biggest opposition party and, in Mr. Fico\u2019s telling, a conspirator in the alleged coup plot, said the accusations were \u201cutterly baffling.\u201d He said he hoped to unseat Mr. Fico at the next election, but denied conspiring to topple him through violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe whole narrative of a coup is made up to distract attention from real problems,\u201d Mr. Simecka said, pointing to recent tax hikes, rising inflation and the shrinking majority in Parliament of Mr. Fico\u2019s shaky coalition after the defection of several legislators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Fico first warned of a coup in January after Mr. Simecka called for a no-confidence vote in Parliament. The motion was derailed after Mr. Fico demanded that legislators hold a closed-door session to discuss secret intelligence material exposing an imminent coup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Simecka, who was shown the material, said that he was prohibited by law from revealing its contents, but added that \u201cthere is no evidence of anything\u201d \u2014 only dark misrepresentation of humdrum NGO work as part of a big conspiracy to subvert the government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe prime minister sees NGOs as sinister actors manipulated by foreign powers,\u201d he said. He added that, in the eyes of the government, U.S.A.I.D. had now replaced George Soros, the Hungarian-born American financier and philanthropist, as the master puppeteer in a purported global liberal conspiracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Michal Vasecka, the program director for the Bratislava Policy Institute, a research group funded by European donors, said funding from U.S.A.I.D. had played a major role in supporting independent media and nongovernmental groups immediately after the collapse of Communism in 1989. But, he said, this money had largely dried up across the region after Slovakia, the Czech Republic and six other formerly Communist countries joined the European Union in 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf the Americans want to save money, this is not the place to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is virtually none here from U.S.A.I.D.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of the biggest beneficiaries of American government money in recent years in Slovakia, according to official records, has been a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/slovakaid.sk\/en\/international-cooperation\/usaid\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Slovakian state agency<\/a> that finances development projects abroad. Another recipient has been the Human Rights League, which received $300,000 for a project related to crimes committed during Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, which shares a border with Slovakia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Grants from the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava went to research groups, anti-corruption activists and independent media outlets, but the sums involved were small \u2014 just a few thousand or tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet, Mr. Vasecka said, \u201cFico really believes that Slovak civil society is funded by the Americans and if this funding did not exist everything would be peaceful for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Stasselova said Mr. Fico had been making increasingly wild accusations since an attempt to assassinate him last year. The government at the time attributed the attack to an unhinged \u201clone wolf,\u201d a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/18\/world\/europe\/slovakia-shooter-suspect.html\" title=\"\">71-year-old amateur poet with no fixed political views<\/a>, but Mr. Fico has since <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/12\/world\/europe\/slovakia-robert-fico.html\" title=\"\">blamed it on his political rivals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The biggest change, however, has been Mr. Fico\u2019s approach to Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. He vowed during an election campaign in 2023 to stop sending weapons to Ukraine from Slovak military stocks, but since <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/09\/30\/world\/europe\/slovakia-election-ukraine.html\" title=\"\">eking out a narrow win at the polls<\/a>, he has ramped up verbal assaults on President Volodymyr Zelensky and Europe\u2019s support for the nation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In December, he <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/23\/world\/europe\/slovak-leader-visits-putin.html\" title=\"\">traveled to Moscow<\/a> for a meeting with Mr. Putin, breaking with the European Union\u2019s policy of trying to isolate the Russian leader.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI was so shocked when I heard he had gone to Moscow,\u201d Ms. Stasselova said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was then, she said, that her group Peace for Ukraine decided that \u201cwe had to do something.\u201d The organization, which had previously focused on fund-raising for Ukraine, including $680,000 to buy an armored demining vehicle, started organizing protests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An initial protest in December attracted only around 3,000 people, but subsequent rallies, held every other week since, have steadily grown in size. More than 40,000, an unusually large turnout in Bratislava, a small city, took part in a rally last week organized under the slogan, \u201cSlovakia is Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Michala Novakova, 23, a student, held up a sign mocking Mr. Fico\u2019s claims on a coup in the making: \u201cWhere is the coup?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The event featured a mix of young people and veteran protesters who fear that Mr. Fico wanted to take Slovakia out of the European Union and revive the close ties to Moscow that had prevailed before 1989.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t want the years before 1989 to repeat themselves,\u201d said Dalibor Vojta, 60, an electrician. He said he never liked Mr. Fico, a former Communist who morphed into a populist nationalist, but had not worried much about where he might take Slovakia until the prime minister went to see Mr. Putin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Stasselova said that being cast as a coup plotter had resulted in her phone being flooded with abusive messages. But she was comforted by the fact that nobody she knew took the accusations seriously. \u201cEveryone is laughing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And sooner or later, she added, the storm will pass: \u201cThis week I am the person to attack. Next week it will be somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Sara Cincurova<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/16\/world\/europe\/slovakia-activist-fico.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hostile to Russia ever since Soviet tanks appeared near her childhood home in 1968 in what was then Czechoslovakia, the now grandmother was delighted to have her photograph taken with a soldier who was fighting Russian invaders in Ukraine. \u201cHe was a hero to me,\u201d Lucia Stasselova, 66, said of the soldier, whom she met [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/16\/multimedia\/16Slovakia-Fico-01-tkhj\/16Slovakia-Fico-01-tkhj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1220,14188,43104,51191,1891,137131,163229,186777,209,15349,5010,25818,54169,128440],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239941,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239939\/revisions\/239941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}