A symposium titled "Bratislava – Capital of Peace" was discreetly held on Wednesday, June 19, at the Carlton Hotel in Bratislava. The event featured one of the deputy speakers of the Slovak Parliament, Ľuboš Blaha, an MP for the governing Smer party who describes himself as a Marxist and who was recently elected as an MEP, as well as the leader of the far-right Republika party, Milan Uhrík, who is also an MEP. Various other pro-Russian politicians from abroad also participated.
The main speaker and apparent organiser was Ashot Grigorian, the self-described head of the Armenian community in Slovakia.
According to MEP Ľubica Karvašová, from the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, the event was organised by the National Institute for Communication Development, which is based in Moscow and allegedly operates as a front for former Russian intelligence agents.
A former president of Moldova, Igor Dodon, who is currently facing corruption charges in his home country, announced his involvement in the event via social media, stating he was invited by Blaha.
The symposium's official topics included the "West's war with Russia" and the sanctions imposed on Russia following its all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Grigorian, who spoke in Russian, presented a book on economic interests in the Ukraine war.
Caroline Cox, a member of Britain's House of Lords who is a well-known supporter of Syria's President Bashar Assad, addressed the meeting remotely, greeting Robert Fico and welcoming President Peter Pellegrini, even though neither was present at the meeting.
"We cannot be afraid to talk about peace, we cannot give in to politicians obsessed with war and conflict. People in Slovakia are shooting at each other just because of political opinions," Uhrík said in English, in an apparent reference to the shooting incident involving Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15. At the beginning of his remarks Uhrík apologised in Russian, saying that he is better at English.
Other notable attendees were German lobbyist Alexander Rahr and Ján Čarnogurský, who served briefly as Slovak prime minister in the early 1990s and is now an outspoken supporter of Vladimir Putin and critic of the United States. Dodon, who is also pro-Russian, emphasised Moldova's need for peace and neutrality in geopolitical conflicts.
Slovak MP Tomáš Valášek (PS) remarked on Facebook about the evident shift in Slovak politics: "There were times – and it wasn't that long ago – when Slovak politicians sat at the negotiating table with Western allies, seeking solutions to problems in the Balkans or migration. Times are changing. Today, for example, a deputy speaker of parliament, Ľuboš Blaha, sat at a 'peace conference' with a former Moldovan president accused of corruption. Proudly sitting next to far-right MEP Milan Uhrík, he spoke about 'totalitarian thinking in part of Slovak society'."
