about this and much more in today's issue, about important things in simple language, available to all viewers. greetings, iryna koval is in the studio, and these are the results of the week on the espresso tv channel. news, summaries of the week, every saturday at 21:00 on espresso. we continue the saturday political club, khrystyna yatskiv and vitaly portnikov. we would like to remind you that today there are parliamentary elections in neighboring slovakia and there are actually some reservations about the percentage that a political force, essentially the party of ex-prime minister fico, can gain. in general , sociology tells us that in not the majority of slovaks realize that russia is a full-fledged aggressor, right?

at the same time, it is also interesting what this percentage can be, which will be received in the parliament by the forces that can be oriented towards russia, i think that this is exactly what we will talk about now with our next guest, rostislav khotyn, a journalist of radio svoboda from slovakia is in touch with us, rosslav, congratulations, glory to ukraine, glory to the heroes, congratulations, christina, congratulations , vitaliy, congratulations, rosslav, so let 's try to understand in general, nato secretary general jen stoltenberg says that who would not lead slovakia, he will support ukraine, from where. such optimism, well, the optimism is that slovakia , no matter what, is a european country that has chosen western civilization, will be part of the western club for almost 20 years, next year it will be 20 years since it is already a member of the european union, and for 20 years, she has been a member of nato , that is, she has anchored herself, slovakia in western structures, this is the first, the second is that this is a country that even in visegrad stands out because, for example, poland, the czech republic and hungary have

its own currency units, and slovakia has had the euro for 14 years already, slovakia is also a member of schengen, so in the western club, as stolteng said, it will continue to sit at the table in nato, and no matter how pro-russian statements there are robert fitz there or other politicians, it is still a country, although by the way, it is younger than ukraine, i will remind you that slovakia was born on january 1, 1993, it is one and a half years younger than ukraine, but there are fewer slovaks - it is an ancient people, here is an important people for ukraine, more important for ukraine, that's what i think, in this, as they say, so to speak, the confidence that slovakia's support for ukraine will continue, no matter what, even robert, who is now talking about the fact that he took so little pro-russian line, even certain anti-ukrainian accents, it’s all the same as his biographer wrote, he is such a cynical pragmatist, quote, so , well, i’ll remind you, and that now he is the favorite in this

race, they gave him 20% plus of socialization, here he is, i’ll remind you in ukrainian, the question is very, very controversial, but i can say which ones things he said, i.e., that ukraine is nato, and that it is necessary to stop the supply of weapons to all of ukraine, not a single bullet, as he said in the quote, then he is against even the transit of military to ukraine, although railway tracks and highways go to ukraine from slovakia, then he talks about sanctions against russia, says that this harms the slovak economy, so he basically made very controversial statements , even the fact that somewhere recently even in kyiv he saw some fascists and nazis in power, he said, and also called, by the way, to urged ukraine to negotiate peace with russia now, talking about the fact that russia will still not leave the territories and crimea, this quote was from robert fizo, but one more time.

i will repeat his biographer, a cynical pragmatist, the same, he was the prime minister in the first term , introduced the euro in slovakia, during the second term, ukraine, during the second term of shitso as prime minister visa-free from the european union, he also applied to the fact that there was a gas reverse from the european union to ukraine, so that in principle, he is such a pragmatist, if brussels and nato and the european union, i i mean, they will put up... a very tough account there in the planned line, then even when he returns, even when he returns, it is not guaranteed yet, very much even not guaranteed, for the position of prime minister, he will not be so pro-russian, anti-ukrainian, but tell me in this case, in principle, if pragmatism is such a decisive trait, then maybe fico will decide that it would be better to be a pragmatist like viktor orbán than a pragmatist like, relatively speaking, the leaders of the czech republic or even poland in support. ukraine, yes, actually, all of it

the essence of these parliamentary elections, and that's it, they should put an end to some kind of political crisis in slovakia, because in five years there have already been five prime ministers, that is, it's already kind of a carousel of these prime ministers, this is what the whole point of these elections says is whether slovakia will continue to be like the czech republic, like the czech republic, where both the president and the prime minister are also ukraine, or whether slovakia will turn into some other hungary, and fitza will become so authoritarian a populist like viktor orban, who also has problems with the european union always in the plan. the rule of law, democracy, freedom of speech, pressure on non-governmental organizations, so fitsa can still become viktor orban, of course, if he becomes prime minister, this is true, and here even in the hungarian question, although they sympathize with each other so to speak and support one, there are some differences, because orbán is

a chauvinist who believes that the rights of ethnic hungarians should be protected, including in slovakia, where hungarians are much larger and more vocal than in ukraine. by the way, in transcarpathia, and further on, recently orban has it in general, the phrase that slovakia is such a fragment of the former hungarian kingdom, that is, in general, some territorial claims to slovakia on the part of orbán, so that not everything is smooth there either, but they have one thing in common, this is populism, these trends are very strong, authoritarianism, this is an attempt to strangle the opposition, not having patience for some ... opposition, this is some kind of paranoid , some kind of trick and fear, some kind of fear-mongering vision of george soros everywhere, but fitso accuses the pro-ukrainian president of slovakia , zuzana chapapta, of being soros's person

and the cold american quote was, so basically, migration also unites orbán and fico, absolutely, so to speak, the rejection of migrants and does not even allow not to provide... even the territory of slovakia in the future he wants not to provide even for the transit of migrants , and they all, as a rule , go to germany in this region, so in principle there is a danger that another skeptical voice may appear in the european union and nato, in the person of the second such hungary, well, such a hungary light will be, if it's really true will win, although it is not yet guaranteed, because the competition is very strong, and his party , the social democracy course: gained 20% plus before the elections, and the biggest competitor is the progressive party of slovakian michal shemechyk, it had somewhere under 20%, on some polls gave a small advantage to fitso's party, so in principle, šimečyk, šimechka, he is a european person

, he is the vice-president of the european parliament, by the way, the first slovak, he was educated in political science in prague, in oxford, a person, a european, a person of the world, very supportive ukraine, he even believes that both in nato and in the european union, by the way, he believes that ukraine should open negotiations with the european union about membership already a year ago, so he is a very ukrainian person, and he is also in favor of slovakia and continued to help ukraine with weapons, slovakia, let me remind you, helped ukraine a lot with weapons during more than a year and a half of the war, for example, it was the first, or one of the first, if at all, to provide mikh 29 fighters... and its old soviet ones, then it gave tanks, it also gave opposing air defense systems s3, it came from slovakia, but it also absolutely gave even its own, not only soviet, but its own weapons, these beautiful howitzers

and self-propelled artillery units, so this slovak help is very, very tangible for ukraine. mr. rostislav, well, if you believe the research of the slovak analyst. organization globsec, they conducted research in central and eastern europe, at least in eight countries, at the beginning of the summer, it was true, that is, we understand that the time has come and everything could have changed, but it was slovakia and bulgaria, there was the smallest percentage of people who testified that they believe in russia as an aggressor in relation to ukraine. in addition, there is sociology that proves that 76% of respondents, at least respondents in slovakia, are against anti-russian sanctions. can we in principle interpret this as the fact that a large part, yes, a certain part of slovak society, which is ready to speak its thoughts out loud, nevertheless, is race-oriented,

somehow yes, yes, there is such a problem, because it the problem of slovak society, political and national in slovak, so to speak say, and i can give a couple more figures, give a survey, in this survey, 69% of slovaks believe that the supply of arms to ukraine makes it more aggressive, that they are not needed, that is, they are almost, almost 69% are against the supply of arms to ukraine, and when the war in ukraine started as well, six months later there was a survey, so there were generally sensational, well, paradoxical things, 20%, more than 20% wanted russia to win , so that it could, and less than 20 wanted ukraine to win, that is, complete absurdity, more there were slovaks who wanted russia to win even after buchi, irpinya and warts, do you understand? what is happening, what is it connected with, firstly , very strong russian propaganda, the 90s

, it was an authoritarian prime minister, so very pro-russian, in slovakia it is not known where some impasse is, russia also bribed here gas, one of the largest gas hubs of such and transit countries for russian gas, traditionally there was a very elite, the business elite was political, bribed by the russians by the russian gazprom and these russian petrodollars, traditionally since the 19 century... slovaks saw a threat in hungary in magyarization and, so to speak, looked at how much russia the slavs have had very strong muscophile, russophile, slavophile sentiments since the century in slovakia, traditionally, and moscow used this a lot, so that in principles, these and the roots of this kind of muscophilism and pan-slavism in slovakia are very old, and moscow, and tsarist, and soviet, and already post-soviet. she used it very nicely, and it is a very serious work for the people, for slovak politicians, for the whole

of europe, how to change this public, but the youth already thinks differently, young people, by the way, the more young people you accept, the more chance it has of becoming a european pro-ukrainian progressive party, and tell me, vatsislav, why was slovak and czech society so different then, it was no longer like that in czechoslovakia itself , while it existed, and here it turned out that two. societies, in two neighboring peoples, which are so close to each other that even now, perhaps they create such a single civilizational space, such different orientations, yes, well, this is historically, just the czech republic, so to speak, historically a threat to czechs, for their national identity, identity, always numbers from germans or german austrians , but for slovaks the biggest threat is hungary, if for the czechs this threat has passed, then for slovaks it has not passed, so to speak, because both the hungarian minority is influential and its

which... sends chauvinistic messages to the hungarians, teaches the language and hang in there, one day the treaty of mojave will revise the other, so basically this moment is also traditionally slovakia, it is more eastern, more eastern than the czech republic, the czech republic still has a positive environment, more and germany, and austria, and poland, that is slovakia, well, austria is there, but the soviet union was with a neighbor, so that's basically what's in slovak. more such slavophile sentiments, they have always been there, well, even in the 90s, the czech republic took a very sharp start to the west, the summit revolution of 1989, immediately took a course to the west, and wavered there between east and west, the pendulum swung back and forth, but i already said that i mentioned mechyra, that is , which slowed down the development of the slovak language for a few years for a long time, in fact, that's how it is in principle, but none the less she chose slovakia.

and the european union, and nato, and ukraine is very active, and it is still quite, quite unguaranteed that robert fico will return, but i think that everything will depend on the coalition, how many will be recruited, what coalitions slovakia has to rule uniformly, fully in one person, no one will win 76 deputy mandates and 150, we will have to run for office. slovakian politicians have a lot of experience here, so it is clear that also, if we are talking about russian influence, then no one filmed russian propaganda either. slovaks, by the way, the russian language is easier for them, they understand it, so in principle, all these waves of propaganda from moscow, they find here a more fertile environment, so to speak, than among the czechs, tell me, but in principle, to what extent... now the influence of president zuzana chapatova, who, as you know, has always been distinguished by such pro-ukrainian

sympathies, how much it is felt in this election campaign, well, she maintains this neutrality, but she came from the same party as the pro-european pro-ukrainian the progressive slovak party was the name of this party, this is the first, second , it has been to ukraine several times since the beginning of the war, including with the czech president petr pavl, and here is one more point... it supports ukraine in every possible way , it's real, well, simple, but she said that she wants only one presidential term , there should be presidential elections next year, and because of these attacks on her , she is constantly on... dirty slovak politics, no gives her the opportunity, as she claims, to continue in this politics, she does not want to run for a second term, although she is the most popular, the most popular slovak politician, she is the most popular slovak politician, svijana chapotova, and in general she is very respected, so to speak, she put

slovakia on the map in a positive sense, from this region, the east and center of europe, that is. but , unfortunately, she does not actively influence these elections, she maintains such a neutral position, but she also does not intend to go to the second presidential term, as i said. mr. rostyslav, clarification, i understand that polling stations will close at 11 p.m. kyiv time, zaivskyi and exit polls, some results will be available after hearing, so read, so 22 - slovakian local time, 23: in kyiv, the polls should close precincts, let me remind you, there are 4 million slovaks, ukraine itself is five million, 4 million slovak elections, the parliament, i already said 150 deputies, and 600 precincts, that is, it is also interesting, by the way, everyone went to actively vote, there will also be activity depend,

especially when young people go to vote, somewhere around 70% turnout is expected, this is quite a lot for a european, calm country of the european union, so let's see what the results will be, and then obviously a coalition will begin, based on who passed and how much they scored, thank you , thank you, rastoslav khotin, radio liberty journalist , was in touch with us, and by the way , the press secretary of president yeltsin serhiy azzhemskyi, the current deputy head of the administration of the president of russia gromov, who is responsible for all media contacts, this is all the so-called bratislava elite, it still plays a significant role in russian politics, and in turn has huge contacts in bratislava, so this too should always be remembered, so pavlo klimkin, diplomat, former minister of foreign affairs of ukraine, we have a short time, congratulations mr. pavlo, greetings to all, friends, good evening , well, look, we were speaking in polish now, and this is a good question, to what extent such an axis can be formed,

visegradska will be almost, without desire, only budapest, bratislava, warsaw, this is huge the problem, i think, is when there are certain governments that can play with other people's national interests for the sake of their electoral opportunities, well, it can actually be a little worse, and not the visegrad option, but bulgaria will also leave with a steam locomotive, that is, part of the balkans, and visegrad is all but for the sake of central europe, i am not going to predict. election results, it depends a lot on the turnout, on whether the voters of relatively small parties will vote at the last moment, respectively for fizo, for pilegrini, fizo, i remind you, this the former prime minister, pelligrini, too, they quarreled a lot there, but in slovak politics

, which is as dirty as we just heard, here, during the election campaign and in cars, they drove into each other's rallies, which was not the case , so this is of course a possible option, eh, i see among the main options, of course, when fitze wins, but the percentages do not mean that he will manage to form a coalition, we will see, it depends, of course, whether the populists will come there, they... go as a block, and for blocks 7%, well, or at the last moment, all of them will vote for the progressives, and then there is a chance for a very difficult coalition with several parties, but there have already been such in the history of slovakia, mykolaš dzuinda, the former prime minister, once managed a rabbit warren of even five

parties, and as for pro-russianism, you are right ... that such a group from bratislava still has influence in the kremlin according to all polls, it is slovakia that is the most pro-russian country in central europe, not hungary, as is sometimes believed in our country, but slovakia, bulgaria is in second place, and hungary is only in third, and that's by the way a fairly stable structure, so today's elections, they are on... actually important for us, and if fitza starts to form a coalition, he will succeed, we will have several challenges, of course he also needs money, so with the european union he

will try to maintain such, such a peculiar, difficult history, but nevertheless, he will have something to talk about with his neighbors and with the hungarians, despite the fact that slovakia's relations with hungary have always been difficult, or with the hungarian minority, but now because of politics orban on them there is less and less less, so i understand their influence as well. the hungarian parties themselves, which have always been two, are also getting smaller and smaller, so there is really a lot of uncertainty, and this is one of the most uncertain elections that i remember in europe recently. mr. pavle, we talked here at the beginning about the visits of foreign officials to ukraine, jan stoltenberg, the secretary general of nato has arrived and we understand the profit, in particular from this visit, to say pragmatically the strengthening of our air defense, several signals regarding the prospects of joining nato, we understand

the importance of the visit of the defense ministers of france and great britain, and in addition, josep borel visited odessa, the head of european diplomacy, what does this visit mean, how to decipher it, well, the defense landing is a really good story, the fact that they all landed on the same day. it's actually funny, but in such a good way, barel, he has a certain connection with odesa, because of his catalan history, he's a catalan social democrat, i want to remind those who think of him as this classically, spanish mainstream politician, especially since it is very important for barel to be present not only... in kyiv, i remember, and i once talked about it with him, by the way, he is a very open person and understands that the capital is the capital, but the capital is far away

is not always representative for the whole country, and the fact that he came to the south, that he was there, that he spoke about the help both directly and the military, and about the naval forces. it's actually a political signal, the barrel just doesn't ride like that, so it's actually, even, even more in some sense weighty than, than stoltenberg in kyiv, i will extremely not compare it, since nato and the eu are two related but different stories, but seeing borel in odessa is important, and you can think about what in principle. will the protection of ukrainian ports become a priority for the event? well, now they are thinking about it, in what way, what will be involved, what programs, they even start

very cautiously, and in fact it is frail, frail in our understanding, but to think about additional support and anti-aircraft and not only, and the protection of the entire coast, is and part of russia's deterrence strategy, i believe control over the black sea, control over the coast, control over the corridors, control over the safety of navigation, these are all elements of strategic interest and strategic importance for the european union, but the fact that not only nato is present in odesa, but also the eu is it's a good story. can it be considered that, so to speak, they have baptized with their presence these eyes chosen by ukraine,

alternative routes to the grain corridor , we now continue, let me remind you, in principle , you leave the ports, ships with grain, and this the defense forces of ukraine did, it was not done at the negotiations, the leaders of turkey, russia, or europe were there. i don't know, any european countries, it's thanks to the defense forces, that is, ukraine has actually paved this path for itself with its own efforts, borel's arrival may mean that it's okay, shall we export like this? no, i think it is not, not about this signal, although we have indeed established a new balance in the black sea, a new security balance, yes it is asymmetric, but nevertheless, the last one... drones, including over the occupied crimea, he shows that we control, directly or indirectly, a significant

part of the black sea. and ye more than once in his history, and i remember it well, tried to formulate a black sea strategy , sometimes it was completely somehow truncated, the second is a better option, and in the end the european union will need to understand that the status quo, he no longer exists, another status quo needs to be built, and it is not only about nato, and vice versa, for the west, the special role of the eu is definitely more important in this, to show that it is not nato that is trying to take over of the black sea, and it is the eu that projects its power, but in this case not only soft power on the black sea, it is such a correct division of labor, that is why i said that the barrel in odessa

is in some sense the devil of maritime security, even a more important signal than stoltenberg, despite the fact that these were very different stories and about different things. so, just before our conversation , a message came from budapest that hungary is not satisfied with the compromise, which is connected with the removal of the otpku from the list of sponsors of the war, with a suspension, so to speak, in this list, because hungary demands full and final withdrawal and is not going to make any concessions to ukraine, but how to cooperate with budapest, when it does not agree to any compromise solutions, but simply demands that ukraine make what viktor orbán wants, without any, i would say undertones, and i already said that budapest has already developed strategies, i think not one, namely strategies on how to promote something like languishing in the european union, they

they will definitely ask for consent to start negotiations on the eu, at the beginning of negotiations on individual chapters, something special, 100% of the funding that is being withheld from them, due to problems with the rule of law in hungary, and they will be like that, sew, anything, so you will have to talk to them, it will not be a simple conversation, moving to hungary. in those matters where decisions are unanimous, that is, consensus is taken, it will not really work, but orbán needs to negotiate in brussels, so again the keys to this are in brussels, and i think we will also need to understand what steps to take we are ready, where we can talk to them, and where we really have to stand to the end, and it's not about

compromises. and about surrendering the position, and this conversation will be 100% neither simple nor pleasant, and if, as we said to orban, someone else is added like a fiz, it will become even more difficult, and please tell me, mr. pavle, what we are actually ready to talk about the status of utp-bank, in the context of a sanctioned or non -sanctioned structure, this gives us, in your... opinion, the right to demand from our partners such, you know, an uncompromising hard position regarding sanctions against russian companies and so on, that is, if we ourselves are ready for compromises for any reason, then can we insist that our partners be tough? of course we can, but what we are doing to withdraw the otp bank or... greek

companies, don't forget that this is also being negotiated, and the greeks are also very insistent on this, so this is not a story about oban alone, as you can see, and many countries of the european union will try to solve their current and not-quite, current and not-quite-current problems along the way the opening of negotiations on the eu, i spoke about it once, what we are doing is simply adding names to such a semi-informal , semi-formal list, adding to this list, of course, complicates life, but there are no formal legal consequences, the sanctions we are talking about , they have such consequences, but at the same time budapest, i remind everyone,