British media are pumping out variations of the same narrative in the wake of the May 15 life-threatening shooting of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico: that (1) the shooting was the result of an environment of “hatred” created by Fico, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and other “extremists” who deviate from the EU’s war policy; and (2) Russia is behind the coming wave of such violence in the runup to the June 6-9 European Parliament elections. A Sky News’ report is typical of the general tenor of the coverage, that Fico deserved what he got, which is exposed by Glenn Greenwald:
Listen to this Sky News report on the shooting of Robert Fico.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 15, 2024
Not only do they come close to justifying it because he opposes aid to Ukraine, but they also casually imply that he's being paid by the Kremlin.
This casual accusation is so prevalent in the West, and toxic. https://t.co/dccTYXKcGt
Left unsaid, but clear is that color revolutions and coups are the order of the day against any other government which dares assert, as London’s flagship daily, The Times, put it, that there can be a “halfway house,” a European security architecture, in which Europe and Russia (labeled “violently disruptive") can co-exist.
The Times piece, “What Robert Fico’s Shooting Reveals about Russia’s Influence”, writes that “America hopes that new governments in Poland and the Czech Republic will bring Slovakia and Hungary back into the fold, to produce some kind of political unity at NATO’s 75th birthday summit in Washington in July…. The battle is on,” The Times writes—naming Georgia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia and Moldova—over “alignment with EU institutions … or a deeper dependence on Moscow.”
