Why Slovakia reached a settlement with pro-Russian former Czech PM

It became known this week that Slovakia's Ministry of the Interior has reached a settlement with former Czech Prime Minister and pro-Russian politician Andrej Babiš.

According to the settlement, it was announced that although the former Czech prime minister appeared on the lists of the National Security Agency (StB, the Soviet-era KGB equivalent in socialist Czechoslovakia), this was allegedly done illegally and without his consent.

This decision at the very least gives Andrej Babiš the opportunity to hold those accountable who call him an "StB informant."

Read more to see whether this settlement could help the pro-Russian politician in Czechia ahead of the 2025 parliamentary elections in the article by Yurii Panchenko, the European Pravda editor – An informant against his will: How the pro-Russian Slovak government 'сleanses' the reputation of the Czech opposition leader.

In the post-socialist period, Slovakia's Institute of National Memory identified Andrej Babiš in the StB agent lists.

According to the Institute, Babiš joined the StB list in 1980. Two years later, he signed a cooperation agreement with the "authorities," receiving the code name Bureš.

Interestingly, Babiš initially did not deny such cooperation. In 2011, he claimed that he was merely protecting his country’s economic interests. However, later, as he entered politics, he withdrew these statements, calling the accusations part of a political battle against him.

To protect himself from these accusations, he even filed a lawsuit against Slovakia's Institute of National Memory.

In total, Babiš has now tried three times to sue the Slovak government, accusing it of damaging his "business reputation" and demanding multi-million euro compensation.

Furthermore, Babiš even managed to win two cases at the first-instance court (something he often mentions), but he lost on appeal (something the politician usually avoids discussing).

The third lawsuit is currently under review.

The Slovak government decided to reach a settlement, seeing a high risk of losing in court, which would give the former Czech prime minister grounds to claim damages.

Thus, the settlement supposedly saves Slovakia from significant budget losses.

The Institute of National Memory in Slovakia criticized the settlement.

"We believe that the documents we presented are credible, chronologically connected, and form a chain of evidence documenting Andrej Babiš’s deliberate cooperation with the StB, which means the legitimacy of his records as a secret agent. Nothing has changed here," said Institute Director Jerguš Sivoš.

This provides every reason to believe that the decision is purely political.

The settlement increases Babiš’s ability to intimidate journalists with lawsuits for those who wish to remind the public of this controversial page in the biography of the leader of the largest opposition party in Czechia.

And this significantly strengthens Babiš's chances of triumphantly returning to the prime ministerial office next year.

However, what is more telling is this: the Slovak government, friendly to Russia, led by Robert Fico, is willing to create internal conflict within its own country just to increase the chances of victory in neighbouring Czechia for another "friend of Putin."

Now, it remains to be seen how the societies in both countries – Czechia and Slovakia – will react to this attempt to restore the reputation of a controversial politician.