The Slovak government under Prime Minister Robert Fico is moving to channel public funds to two civic associations directly tied to Hlavné správy and Hlavný denník—websites previously blocked for spreading Russian propaganda—despite both platforms being identified by national watchdogs as threats to Slovakia’s security. The €10,000 grants, formally justified as support for disadvantaged groups, were proposed by Fico’s top official Juraj Gedra and are set to be approved without parliamentary debate. One of the linked outlets employed a man convicted of taking cash from a Russian embassy official; both remain blacklisted as disinformation sources. Critics say the move marks not just a collapse of Slovakia’s resistance to Kremlin influence, but an active state rehabilitation of media once aligned with hostile intelligence operations.
The Office of the Government, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico of the nationalist-populist Smer party, has proposed providing €10,000 each to two civic associations—Heuréka Evolution and Verbina—from the prime minister’s discretionary reserve. Both organisations are directly linked to Slovak platforms notorious for spreading Russian propaganda: Hlavné správy and Hlavný denník. Although the stated purpose of the funding is to support infrastructure and employ a physically disadvantaged person, the recipients’ backgrounds point to a broader issue: state legitimisation of actors previously blacklisted for undermining national security.
According to the watchdog project Hoaxy a podvody, which monitors and investigates disinformation in Slovakia, these two associations are closely tied to websites blocked in 2022 after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Heuréka Evolution is affiliated with Hlavné správy, while Verbina serves as the publisher of Hlavný denník. These platforms were shut down on the grounds of spreading narratives favourable to the Russian regime at a time of war, and their past content included statements like referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “grandmaster” who would end the war.
The scale of the threat posed by such media is exemplified by the case of Bohuš Garbár, a contributor to Hlavné správy, who was caught accepting money from a Russian embassy officer in a Bratislava park. The incident, which led to Garbár receiving a suspended sentence and a €15,000 fine, underscored the operational ties between Slovak disinformation actors and the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus.
From Kremlin Cash to Taxpayer Support: How the State Is Rehabilitating Disinformation Networks
Juraj Gedra, Head of the Government Office and a close ally of Prime Minister Fico within the Smer party, is the official behind the proposal. He has described the funds as charitable support and declined to respond to questions from the press. If not actively challenged at the cabinet meeting, the funding will proceed by default. Watchdogs, however, argue that the move represents a significant breach of public trust and a direct contradiction of the state’s previously stated security priorities. “State institutions have long ceased to combat disinformation and Russian propaganda. What we are now witnessing is direct financial support for content that contradicts the security interests of the Slovak Republic,” warned Hoaxy a podvody in response to the proposal.
This policy shift stands in sharp contrast to actions taken by the previous administration under centrist Prime Minister Eduard Heger, whose government responded to the Russian invasion by temporarily blocking several disinformation platforms—including Hlavné správy, Hlavný denník, and the extremist radio station Infovojna. These measures were enacted by the National Security Authority on the basis of national security risk. However, the decision lacked judicial oversight and provided no formal appeals process. This lack of transparency was later weaponised by the far-right and pro-Russian political actors to frame the shutdown as political censorship rather than a security precaution.
Weaponising Censorship Claims: Smer Politicians Recast Kremlin Mouthpieces as ‘Citizen Media’
Leading this narrative shift is Erik Kaliňák, a Member of the European Parliament from Smer and the chief advisor to Prime Minister Fico. He has echoed Russian-style propaganda by referring to the banned sites as “citizen media,” telling Czech Television that “for three years, citizen media were being shut down in secrecy just for translating foreign interviews. Unlike them, we don’t censor anyone.” This rhetorical manoeuvre, intended to legitimise the state’s support for previously discredited media, has been widely criticised by journalists and media monitors alike.
Both Hlavné správy and Hlavný denník remain listed on Konspiratori.sk, Slovakia’s leading database of websites identified as deceptive, conspiratorial, or propagandistic. Despite this, the government has shifted sharply toward rehabilitating these platforms, with ministers now regularly appearing on Infovojna and other fringe media outlets that once peddled vaccine denial, anti-NATO narratives, and fabricated claims about Slovak public institutions.
The history of Hlavné správy reveals a clear pattern of ideological alignment with Russian objectives. Established by Košice businessman Róbert Sopko, the site originally described itself as a conservative daily. Following the annexation of Crimea in 2014, however, it increasingly published anti-Western propaganda and anti-EU content. In 2017, media expert Jakub Goda infiltrated the outlet under a false identity and found that articles could be submitted by virtually anyone, provided they fit the outlet’s ideological profile. One example included a fabricated story about a Muslim mayor in New Jersey banning the word “Christmas”—a piece Sopko later deleted when exposed. The site also maintained direct links to Rossija Segodňa (“Russia Today”), Russia’s central state media agency for foreign propaganda, via contributor communications.
After the 2018 assassination of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, Hlavné správy openly sided with Robert Fico, pushing conspiracy theories that the protests which followed were funded by George Soros. Organised crime figure Marian Kočner, later convicted in unrelated financial crimes, even claimed in private communications to be an “investor” in Hlavné správy, boasting about its readership to businessman Norbert Bödör, another Fico associate.
Hlavný denník, the second beneficiary of the government’s proposed funding, was launched in 2018 by Peter Králik, an originator of other Slovak disinformation websites. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it rapidly gained traction by promoting pseudoscience and vaccine conspiracy theories. The site often presented unqualified individuals as expert sources—for example, a Croatian tour guide was portrayed as a vaccine authority in opposition to scientists from the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Following a defamatory article about infectious disease specialist Dr Peter Sabaka, Hlavný denník was forced to issue a public apology.
The man now spearheading the state’s partnership with such organisations, Juraj Gedra, has taken a central role in dismantling what remained of Slovakia’s strategic communication apparatus. Shortly after the 2023 parliamentary elections, Gedra publicly disparaged civil servants working on disinformation resilience and media literacy. Many of these professionals subsequently left government service. Gedra later declared, “Political activists will no longer dictate correct opinions to Slovaks,” signalling the new administration’s ideological break from Euro-Atlantic information norms.
By proposing state support for actors who have demonstrably aligned themselves with hostile foreign powers, the Slovak government under Robert Fico is not merely retreating from previous disinformation countermeasures—it is reversing them. What was once considered a threat to national security is now being financially endorsed from the highest levels of government.
