“They will try to find a common language”: Slovakia lifted the ban on cultural cooperation with Russia

The new Ministry of Slovakia has lifted the ban on cultural cooperation with Russia/Collage 24 Channel

The new Minister of Culture of Slovakia, Martina Simkovicheva, lifted the ban on cultural cooperation with Russia and Belarus. According to her, “culture should not pay for military conflicts.”

According to the new order of the minister, which was at the disposal of journalists, Shimkovicheva January 12 approved the order to lift the ban on cooperation. As she explained, such a decision is connected with the desire to find a common language so as not to divide society.

There are dozens of military conflicts in the world, and, in our opinion, artists and culture should not pay for this,” Shimkovicheva explained her decision.

The decision to lift the ban on cooperation has entered in force on January 15, 2024.

By the way, the ban on cooperation in the field of culture with Russia and Belarus was introduced on March 2, 2022. Then the current minister, Natalya Milanova, decided to ban all controlled organizations and their employees from collaborating with Russia and Belarus.

Statements of the Slovak government on regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine

• In Slovakia, a new minister, Robert Fico, came to power in October 2023. During his reign, he has repeatedly outlined the theses of the Kremlin propaganda.
• For example, Fico recently supported the position of the Hungarian leader Viktor Orban on providing macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. He suggested reworking its concept and delivery method. Fico, like Orban, expressed the opinion that 50 billion euros in aid to Ukraine should not come from the EU budget. He stressed that it was necessary to find another way of financing, but could not offer anything.
• Fico also started talking about the fact that Russia needed “security guarantees” and tried to justify a full-scale invasion. In particular, he stated that in 2014 Russia launched an invasion due to the “oppression of Russian-speaking citizens” in Ukraine. He also repeated the popular thesis of Russian propaganda that Ukraine is under the total influence of the United States.
• In addition, the Prime Minister of Slovakia also openly stated that he was going to veto Ukraine’s entry into NATO. Fico believes that our country’s entry into the Alliance allegedly “will be the beginning of the third world war”