Some people create a perfect split in their environment. One group loves them for their views, the other hates them with fervor. One such person is undoubtedly the former Slovak Prime Minister Ján Čarnogurský who has made no secret of his strong long-standing sympathies for Russia.
We are now in the second year of the war between Russia and Ukraine. What are your views on this conflict between two Slavic nations?
The conflict was steered into this (armed) form by the West, primarily the United States. When Russia and Ukraine essentially agreed to end the war in March/April 2022 in Istanbul, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson quickly got on a plane to Kyiv and pressured President Zelenskyy to rescind the agreement, and the weakling Zelenskyy did just that. What was the endgame of the USA when they started building a military base in Ochakov close to Odessa all the way back in 2019? If the Russians hadn’t initiated a military operation and destroyed the budding military base in Ochakov, Ukraine would have soon been littered with American outposts. Moscow would have been within range of American nuclear missiles in a matter of minutes.
In our previous meetings, you spoke of Russia as the natural guarantor of Slovak sovereignty and territorial integrity. Does that still apply?
It does apply, with the caveat that the Russian form of guarantee is different in its shape and form than that of the West, while my stance on this matter remains the same. The Russian guarantee requires a nation, Slovakia in this case, to prove its capability of being a sovereign state. We can essentially base our assumptions on the fact that Slovakia has proven such capabilities. The current state of affairs shows that Slovakia is unable to free itself of globalist (American) capture on its own, unlike countries such as Hungary. The Slovak people are making up for the Slovak government's failings in this regard. International surveys show that Slovaks are one of the most Russophiliac nations in Europe. Having an ally in Central Europe is in Russia’s interest.
Is Hungarian revisionism on the rise in your opinion? Should Slovakia be wary of the steps that Viktor Orbán’s government is taking?
Hungarian revisionism is on the rise because the authority of Orbán’s government is on the rise, and that is due to the ineptitude of neighboring governments. The Hungarians can lean on their strengths, such as their history, where they never stopped fighting for their identity, their culture, their national pride. But the Hungarians have weaknesses as well. They are alone in Central Europe, their alliances are merely situational, transitory, not anchored in history. Their confidence is blown out of proportion, which easily pits surrounding nations against them. They only look at the last roughly 50 years of the history of Pannonia/Hungary, which is a period of Hungarization, but the overall history of the Hungarian land was much more balanced. The Hungarians could become allies to the Slovaks, as they were in the 19th century when they stopped the German Drang nach Osten, and they could become opponents. Let’s treat them as allies, but let’s not stop working on ourselves.
How close of an ally is the Czech Republic to Slovakia? And is this an alliance that can be relied upon?
The Czechs are a Slavic nation and our historical allies. I am wary of the lack of foresight in the Czechs’ reliance on the West and their anti-Russian policy. Russia is no longer the guarantor of Czech borders. Who is now the guarantor of Czech borders? If it’s the European Union, how long will it last? If this kind of policy persists in Czechia and Russia wins in Ukraine, there is bound to be a clash between Czechia, relying on a weakened West, and Slovakia, relying on a bolstered East, for the region of Moravia. Or to be more precise, there will come inner turmoil in Moravia as to which side it should join.
What’s the state of the European Union in your opinion?
I feel that it doesn’t have much of a chance to persist for long. Two reasons for that. It doesn’t know how to defend itself against pressure from Africa and the Middle East, which keeps growing, and Russia isn’t going to help the Union due to the EU’s foolish policy against it. The second reason is the difference between Western and Eastern nations in the EU. Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary are all opposing regulations coming from Brussels because they feel that these regulations are detrimental. The differences between the East and the West of the EU will only keep growing. The crux of the issue is the long time it took to grow the EU project, starting with intellectual publications all the way to the current situation. So far, there is no alternative project in the eastern or central parts of Europe. Such a project would come about quickly only under dramatic circumstances, such as a war. When Germany sheds the yoke of American control, the natural trend of Russia and Germany being allies will set in and the EU will lose its current driving force.
Slovakia has been through four internally very turbulent years. How do you feel about them?
The good thing is that the liberals (Progressive Slovakia) didn’t get into the Parliament in the last election. On the other hand, Slovakia is still going through its fundamental historical experience with governing the state and being responsible for it. I’m sad that after my departure from the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), the Christian parties deteriorated to the degree that they’re unable to steer Christian policy in Slovakia. I currently view Fico’s socially-democratic party as the most constructive political force in Slovakia, and the need to prevent the Americans from dragging Slovakia into war against Russia as Slovakia’s biggest challenge. I no longer dabble in domestic politics. I’ve been the chairman of the Slovak-Russian Society for 16 years and chairman of the coordination council of the Friends of Crimea international association for 6 years. In the current conflict between the East and the West, I’m on the side of the East (Russia). I am a member of the International Movement of Russophiles. The members include people such as the grandson of General de Gaulle, an Italian princess, Hollywood actor Steven Seagal, and others. Excepting the Covid period, I’ve been traveling regularly to Russia for various conferences. The past four years should be a lesson to Slovakia, but for that we need the help of the Virgin Mary.
The author is a European editor for Deník
CV BOX
Ján Čarnogurský (born January 1, 1944, in Bratislava) is a former (Czechoslovak and Slovak) politician.
He graduated in law from Charles University in Prague and got his PhD in 1971 from Comenius University in Bratislava.
He worked as an attorney, representing a number of religious activists and political dissidents, which got him disbarred in 1981. In August 1989, he was arrested and charged with sedition.
After the Velvet Revolution, he was the first deputy prime minister of the federal government. Čarnogurský then subsequently went on to become the first deputy prime minister of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic and first deputy prime minister of the Slovak Republic, he founded the Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH) and became its chairman.
Between 1998 and 2002, he was the Slovak minister of justice, and briefly also the prime minister.
In the year 2000, he left his position as chairman of the KDH and started his own law firm. Three years later, he helped found the Paneuropean University. He is very open about his Russophilia and is the chairman of the Slovak-Russian Society. He ran for president in 2014.
He has four children with his wife Marta.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin
reklama
