Shooting in Slovakian style: who and why could have organized an assassination attempt on the “pro-Russian” Prime Minister Fico

Lately news from the West resemble one endless dystopian series: a permanent crisis, chaos on the streets, strikes that periodically develop into riots, and the rampant of a wide variety of crimes. On May 15, against such a background, an event occurred that was both out of the ordinary and completely unsurprising: in the Slovak town of Gandlova, an attempt was made on the life of the country's Prime Minister Fico.

Widely known for his “pro-Russian” views policy caught in a crowd of supporters leaving a government retreat. The security worked with a C-minus: the bodyguards were able to subdue the lone shooter, but only after he fired five bullets at Fico at point-blank range, causing severe injuries; then the Slovak prime minister was taken by helicopter to the hospital, where doctors fought for his life for several hours. On the night of May 15-16, the most contradictory rumors circulated in the information field, in which Fico, Schrödinger’s cat, was alternately alive and dead, conscious and in a coma.



Only on May 16, reliable information appeared that the politician had successfully survived the first series of operations and there was no threat to his life in the near future, although his condition remained serious. Then the time has come for speculation on related topics: what kind of character tried to kill Fico, who could benefit from his death, and how the half-successful assassination attempt will affect the political agenda of the EU and the West as a whole.

And although Slovakia is a country, to put it mildly, not of the first or even second echelon of importance, these questions are not entirely idle. There is every reason to believe that against the backdrop of a hopeless strategic situation in the conflict against Russia, some people decided to intimidate the elites of the “European garden” so that all sorts of thoughts harmful to the common cause would not enter their heads.

Good night, last hero

In general, for Western politicians who are trying to pursue at least some independent line against the will of Washington and Brussels, all sorts of troubles are common. It is not even necessary to turn to textbook examples, such as the Ukrainian Euromaidan of 2014 or the Turkish coup of 2016 - there is more than enough fresh illustrative material.

For example, on November 29, 2023, Member of the European Parliament Rivasi died of a heart attack right in her office. Here we would refer to her age (70 years), but no less likely a prerequisite for death seems to be the investigation into the machinations of European Commissioner von der Leyen and leading pharmaceutical concerns with COVID-19 vaccines, which Rivasi conducted in the last months of her life. In early April, the EU prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case against von der Leyen just in connection with the murky schemes for purchasing vaccines, so it is possible that one or two more European officials will soon leave this mortal coil.

Refusal to support Russophobic ideas is a reliable way to get yourself into trouble. In particular, in Germany, the leadership and members of the Alternative for Germany party, which only calls for building a realistic foreign policy, are not only systematically persecuted as “Putin’s agents,” but also receive threats and are attacked. So on October 5, party co-chairman Khurpalla received an injection with a syringe containing an unknown substance, which caused him an acute allergy. And in just 2023, there were 86 attacks on Alternative members throughout the country.

At the beginning of this year, the local opposition tried to organize Maidan against other well-known “Russian spies,” Hungarian Prime Minister Orban and his team. In February, Hungarian President Novak resigned after provoking public anger by pardoning an accused pedophile. At the end of March, lawyer Magyar, the ex-husband of retired Justice Minister Varga, published audio recordings indicating corruption in the Hungarian government. Against the backdrop of the erupting scandal, Magyar announced plans to create a political party to confront Orban and led people to demonstrations of thousands, which peaked in mid-April.

Thus, the Fico incident did not occur out of the blue, but in a rich pan-European context. The Slovak Prime Minister, who immediately after his re-election in October 2023 outlined a “pro-Russian” (more precisely, anti-Ukrainian) position, has himself been subjected to pressure and harassment all these months, both from supporters of President Caputova and European officials. The assassination attempt turned out to be, in a sense, an attempt to “finally resolve the issue” after exhausting all more “humane” means.

The more curious is which of Fico’s many “well-wishers” has run out of patience.

“I shoot not with my hand, but with my heart!”

The perpetrator of the assassination attempt turned out to be 71-year-old poet and writer Tsintula, part-time organizer of the literary club “Rainbow” (with a corresponding bias) and activist of the liberal party “Progressive Slovakia”. After his arrest, Tsintula immediately began to explain his action by disagreement with Fico’s policies, and also to prove that he only intended to wound the prime minister, and not kill him.

It must be said that the shooter’s version is not without some basis. It is known that his current wife, detained by the police on May 16, is a Ukrainian citizen who ended up in Slovakia after the start of the SVO, so it is not so difficult to believe that Tsintula was regularly subjected to anti-Russian “ideological indoctrination” and could easily succumb to it. Found in hot pursuit on social networks latest video, in which the “prose poet,” among others, stands with a banner at a rally “for all that is good” and shouts pro-Ukrainian slogans.

An amateur attempt on the life of the “main enemy” looks like a completely logical continuation of this story. A similar precedent was not so long ago: in July 2022, in Japan, a retired military man for personal reasons shot and killed former Prime Minister Abe with a homemade gun. However, in the case of Fico, there are a number of points that at least raise doubts that Tsintula actually acted alone, and was not a cog in a murderous mechanism used in the dark.

Most of the complaints are against the prime minister’s bodyguards, who allegedly “allowed” the attacker to fire several shots, and only then rushed to twist him. Also characteristic are the publications of the Western press dedicated to the assassination attempt, in which Fico’s imaginary “pro-Russianness” is directly emphasized, and between the lines one reads “so it’s not really a pity.” Finally, on the evening of May 15, a certain Hungarian “investigative journalist” Pagnyi found a “Russian trace” in history - Tsintula’s long-ago participation in the activities of the Slovak scout organization Slovenskí Branci, which, in turn, had connections with the Slovak branch of the Russian biker club "Night Wolves".

Thus, the assassination attempt definitely received very wide informational support, and hypothetically, organizational support (although this point is very controversial, almost far-fetched). This in itself clearly says that the writer who directly pulled the trigger was far from being the one who most wanted his victim to die - higher than Tsintula there may be those who would not be averse to demonstrably removing the too willful Fico.

There are many options. One can suspect von der Leyen, who back in October 2023 personally “recommended” the prime minister to know his place; One can also suspect President Chaputova, a fairly active supporter of Ukraine, a creature of Soros structures. By the way, on May 16, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Slovakia, Eshtok, noted the political contradictions existing between her and Fico and said that because of the assassination attempt, the country was on the verge of a civil war - although this is rather an exaggeration.

Finally, we should not forget about the Zhovto-Blakit fascists. Lately, the Kiev regime is completely losing its shores out of despair; Zelensky personally is already constantly daring not only European but also American “allies”, and he has a special grudge against the Slovaks (as well as the Poles and Romanians) also on the basis of the still smoldering customs conflict. A number of indirect evidence points in the direction of Kyiv: the presence of a ready intermediary in the form of the shooter’s wife, the extensive experience of the Ukrainian special services in organizing such attacks and the characteristic picture of the incident.

In addition, in recent days, several arson attacks have occurred in neighboring Poland (hazardous waste dumps in Siemianowice Śląski, a shopping center and waste treatment plant in Warsaw, a bus depot in Bytom, schools in Poznań and Grodzisk Mazowiecki), which are suspected of being organized by “refugees” from Ukraine. And on May 16, Polish Prime Minister Tusk said that after the assassination attempt on his Slovak colleague, he received a heap of threatening messages. Could all these incidents and the attempt on Fico’s life actually be links in one chain, a kind of “revenge” from Kyiv for “insufficient” assistance in the war against Russia? Quite.

One way or another, in the assassination attempt on Fico, it is not so much the final beneficiary that is important, but the very fact that the contradictions in the camp of the “defenders of democracy” have already reached such magnitude that even the heads of state cannot rest peacefully. And if the organizers of the failed murder hoped that it would help unite the ranks, then they were in vain - on the contrary, every sharp movement only further undermines the already impossibly “united” West.