The Slovak National Uprising Square in central Bratislava is no stranger to upheaval. Evidence of the city’s turbulent history surrounds the square and its pastel-colored buildings. Walk a few blocks away and you’ll find a street corner sometimes covered in wreaths honoring three people killed there during the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The square itself was a focal point for the Velvet Revolution, which brought down a Soviet-backed communist regime in Czechoslovakia. When I visited in August, several hundred people had gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the invasion—and voice their anger about their country’s current direction.

One of the attendees, David Selyem, was wearing an “I heart NATO” T-shirt wrapped around his stocky frame and waving a large blue and yellow flag. An older woman approached and asked to take his picture. “Ukraine,” she said with a grin and a double thumbs-up. Selyem, who previously played professional poker, delivered aid in Ukraine, and has now devoted himself to the widespread protests against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

“The Russian propaganda here is really working,” Selyem told me. “I see it in our prime minister.” The crowd concurred, chanting “shame” whenever Fico’s name was mentioned.

Since coming back to power in 2023, Fico has been shifting Slovakia closer to Russia, back-pedaling his predecessors’ staunch support for Ukraine and undermining European cohesion. When he boarded a flight to Moscow last December, it was a final straw for tens of thousands of Slovakians, who took to the streets. Frustration was exacerbated when Fico became the only European Union leader to attend an annual Victory Day celebration in Moscow last spring. Then, in early September, he met Russia’s president in Beijing.

Many younger Slovakians are staunch supporters of Ukraine and its European allies. But among Fico’s base, often older and rural voters, support for Russia remains strong. The contested role of the Red Army—as liberator in 1945 and invader in 1968—lies at the heart of Slovakia’s debate over history and politics.

Four men walk through a square, one behind the other, carrying flags. The two men in front carry the flag of the Soviet Union, and the two behind hold the flag of the Russian Federation. An obelisk memorial towers above them in the background.

Participants hold Soviet and Russian flags at Slavin, the memorial to Soviet soldiers who died during the battles for the city and the surrounding region in World War II, in Bratislava, Slovakia, on April 4, during celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bratislava.Tomas Benedikovic/AFP via Getty Images

After Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938, a Nazi client state was formed in Slovakia, the first independent Slovakian state in history. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Red Army helped liberate the country, which had been occupied by German troops since a failed uprising the year before. Slovakia then rejoined communist Czechoslovakia, which became a satellite state of the Soviet Union. When, in 1968, the country’s communist leader, Alexander Dubcek, tried to initiate reforms known as the Prague Spring, the Soviet Union and their Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia. Soviet forces remained inside the country until the 1989 Velvet Revolution led to their withdrawal, with Slovakia becoming an independent state several years later.

Today, Fico’s supporters consider the Soviet Union—and by extension Russia—as a liberator from fascism. A survey conducted in Slovakia in February by the think tank Globsec found that 54 percent of respondents agreed that Russia was the main actor responsible for defeating fascism in World War II and continues to play a leading role in the fight against fascism today. (The data has not been published yet but was shared with Foreign Policy.)

Critics also acknowledge that the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact invested heavily in industrializing Slovakia. According to Alexander Duleba, a senior fellow at the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association who served as an advisor to pro-Ukrainian prime minister Eduard Heger, Moscow’s reasons were cynical—to increase military production and better protect their front line with the West. But the results still linger in people’s memory. Today, many older Slovakians believe they had better jobs, salaries, education, and services during the Soviet period. “Not so many former communist countries can say that they were modernized during the Soviet era; Slovakia is one of them,” said Duleba.

Spying an opportunity, Moscow has conducted online and offline campaigns to promote a positive image within Slovakia. “Russia builds on the narratives that have been shared widely as propaganda during the Soviet regime when Slovakia was part of the eastern bloc under the influence of the Soviet Union,” said Dominika Hajdu, director of policy and planning at Globsec. “So back then there was this strong narrative that Russia has liberated Slovakia from fascism, and it is only thanks to Russia.”

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The Russian Embassy’s Facebook account, which has over 70,000 followers, often posts about the heroism of Soviet Union troops in World War II. The Russian government has hosted wreath-laying ceremonies for Soviet troops who died during the conflict, while pro-Russian biker gangs like Brat za Brata (Brother for Brother) and the Night Wolves have also held ceremonies all over the country.

A celebration for Bratislava’s liberation in April was attended by Fico alongside the Russian ambassador, the Belarusian ambassador, and members of Brat za Brata. EU ambassadors refused to attend. Fico has been insistent: “Liberty came from the East. Nothing can change this truth.”

It’s not just bikers. Many members of Fico’s base have been eager to cultivate a nostalgic view of Slovakia’s relationship with Russia. I met Vladimir Mikunda in his high-ceilinged office in central Bratislava. Mikunda is a leading figure in the Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters, a group that maintains dozens of World War II memorial sites across Slovakia. The union has split over the war in Ukraine; some members are appalled by Russia’s invasion of an independent country, while others, like Mikunda, take a more sympathetic view.

Mikunda was 12 during the 1968 invasion, something he condemns but says Russia has apologized twice for. Life under Soviet occupation for him meant safer streets, better food security, and peace. As an adult, he served in the army under the communist Czechoslovakian government and then in post-communist Slovakia.

From his armchair, Mikunda hands me a copy of the union’s magazine, Bojovnik. Flicking through it feels a bit like reading a watered-down version of Russian state media, its pages decrying Western hypocrisy and bad intentions. Mikunda, the editor, tells me he consumes Russian media every day.

“We perceive politics through what it has to do with fascism and against fascism. Ukraine is not a Nazi state, but it is a Nazi regime,” Mikunda told me.

Putin and Fico shake hands. They stand behind identical podiums. Behind them are the flags of Slovakia and Russia framed by curtains.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) shakes hands with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico during a news conference in Moscow on Nov. 16, 2009. Dmitry Kostyukov/AFP via Getty Images

When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine in February 2022, Slovakia’s then-prime minister, Eduard Heger, became one of Kyiv’s most reliable European allies. Slovakia was the first country to send air defense systems to Ukraine, giving Kyiv its S-300 system. Heger also lobbied for Ukraine to be granted EU membership status.

“If Ukraine fails, Slovakia is next. They have to win,” he told a forum in Davos that May.

A year and a half later, Fico was back in power for the first time since 2018, and subordinated foreign policy to domestic policy in an attempt to appeal to his electorate. “Fico’s voters expect him to be anti-EU and anti-Ukraine because Ukraine is at war with Russia. It’s about his political survival,” according to Duleba.

Acting on a campaign promise, Fico announced he would stop providing military aid to Kyiv. This was hardly a significant blow to Kyiv in military terms, as Slovakia was a small donor compared to other allies. Moreover, private companies in Slovakia have continued to sell arms and the country’s arms exports have grown tenfold since 2022. But the decision was damaging. Laurynas Kasciunas, then-chairman of the national security and defense committee in the Lithuanian Parliament, told the New York Times in October 2023 that Fico’s action “poisons the unity of the Western nations striving to support Ukraine.”

On EU sanctions and other non-military policies toward Ukraine, Fico has walked a fine line. Symbolically, his rhetoric and actions have felt increasingly pro-Russian, but he often reluctantly toes Brussels’ line on major issues. In February, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in the United States, Fico accused the EU of using the war in Ukraine to politically and economically weaken Russia. “[N]o one is disputing that Russia’s use of military force in Ukraine was a violation of international law. However, Russia had serious security reasons for doing so because it has long been misled on the issue of NATO enlargement,” he said.

In July, the EU signed a suite of new sanctions against Russia. For weeks, Fico refused to sign onto the plan, using it as an opportunity to oppose a separate EU deal to phase out Russian gas and oil. He eventually budged, but the delay gave Russia more time and created friction within Europe. In the end, all Slovakia obtained was a three-page letter from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen providing vague reassurances about compensating households and industry for phasing out Russian oil and gas. Fico delivered another blow in September when he met Putin in Beijing: While the EU is seeking to reduce energy imports from Russia, Fico told the Russian president he wanted to increase Slovakia’s imports of Russian gas. Then, last week Fico again dragged his feet before eventually lifting his veto on a new set of sanctions.

“You can feel the frustration in Brussels, you can feel it everywhere,” Jozef Hrabina, a geopolitical risk advisor, told me. Some EU officials have even considered changing the voting rules to limit Slovakia’s ability to veto major policy proposals, he said.

A large crowd of people holds up phone flashlights, as well as Slovak and EU flags and protest posters.

Protesters take part in an anti-government demonstration at Freedom Square in Bratislava on Feb. 7.Tomas Benedikovic/AFP via Getty Images

Back on the streets of Bratislava, mass protests gave way to a quiet nervousness over the summer. “Now we have a process where our government is destroying democracy in small pieces and they have a plan for that. They want to make an unliberal democracy like in Hungary,” Selyem told me. As he spoke, someone in front of us let off a flare spewing blue and yellow smoke into the sky.

A delegation from the European Parliament civil liberties committee recently visited the country and concluded that Slovakia was experiencing a weakening of judicial independence, freedom of the press, parliamentary oversight, and individual liberties. Like Selyem, the committee questioned whether Slovakia is on a path to becoming another Hungary, where prime minister Viktor Orban has a tight grip on independent institutions.

Elements of Fico’s leadership have indeed come to resemble Orban’s. Fico pushed through an amendment to the criminal code that got rid of the special prosecution office, which dealt with corruption cases, including against members of his own party. A law that came into effect in June requires nongovernmental organizations to disclose their funding sources. While the law was watered down after pressure from the European Commission, critics fear it echoes a Russian foreign agents law that has been used to silence dissent. The state has brought the public broadcaster STVR closer under its control. And Fico’s minister of culture, Martina Simkovicova, whose Slovak National Party is part of the governing coalition, has been accused of purging cultural institutions of opposition as part of her war on “LGBT+ ideology.”

But for Duleba, the comparison to Orban is weak. Hungary’s leader has long held a large majority in parliament, while Fico’s coalition has a slim majority of 79 out of 150 seats, making constitutional changes hard to enact. The next parliamentary elections will be held by 2027. Polls indicate that if the election was held tomorrow, a liberal democratic coalition led by the Progressive Slovakia party would win.

“Fico is leading the country in Hungary’s direction, but of course he faces resistance,” said Grigorij Meseznikov, a political analyst who heads Slovakia’s Institute for Public Affairs. “For Orban it took more than 12 to 14 years to establish this regime, to consolidate, and the resistance wasn’t very efficient. In Slovakia, Fico is really confronted with resistance. So the prospectives are good.”

Following the summer hiatus, some protesters are back on the streets. Thousands gathered in Bratislava on Sept. 11 in response to Fico’s recent meeting with Putin. David Selyem is desperate for a break. But, as Slovakia’s opposition prepares for the next elections, he is gearing up for more protests. “We need a rest for some time, we made 11 big protests in a half year. It takes a lot of energy,” he said.