The Slovak government’s love for Russia knows no bounds.
A group of six MPs led by Andrej Danko, leader of the hard-right Slovak National Party (SNS) from the ruling coalition, went to Moscow this week in a sign of growing ties between Bratislava and the Kremlin.
The trip came shortly after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico visited Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin in a (failed!) bid to secure the supply of cheap gas.
But while Fico’s trip was mainly business, the group of Slovak MPs went around admiring Moscow’s architecture, attending theater plays and browsing Russian supermarkets to prove that stories about missing basic food supplies are (totally and completely!) false.
Their positive outlook echoed another controversial recent Russia visit: Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson’s Moscow jolly back in February 2024.
Tucker Carlson enjoyed his sit-down with Putin so much that he went to Moscow again in December, this time to interview Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
It’s hard to tell whether Carlson or Danko enjoyed Moscow more, but can you guess who said which gushing quote about Russia? (Answers at the end; don’t scroll down!)
Quiz
1. “If someone wants to call [the] Russian nation evil, how could an evil nation have so many books? I wish you could see the bookstores, the huge department stores. How could an evil nation have such beautiful art, such skilled athletes?”
2. “We are in … a hot war with Russia, an undeclared war you did not vote for, but that is ongoing. And because the U.S. military is killing Russians in Russia right now, we are closer to nuclear war than in any time in history.”
3. “Finnish butter. Christian butter. 50 types of butter. Mega paradise.”
4. “What was very shocking, very disturbing was the city of Moscow, where I’d never been … it was so much nicer than any city in my country.”
5. “There is no graffiti, no filth, no foul smells. There are no bums or drug addicts or rapists or people waiting to push you onto the train tracks and kill you. No, it’s perfectly clean and orderly … How does Russia … have a subway station that’s nicer than anything in our country?”
6. “Thankfully, there is a very reasonable, pragmatic person at the helm of Russia.”
7. “You’re wrecking people’s lives and their country, and that’s what their leaders have done to us. And coming to a Russian grocery store, the heart of evil, and seeing what things cost and how people live, it will radicalize you against our leaders. That’s how I feel, anyway —radicalized.”
Answers: 1. Danko. 2. Carlson. 3. Danko. 4. Carlson. 5. Carlson. 6. Danko 7. Carlson.
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