Milan Uhrík is a far-right politician, former member and vice-chairman of the right wing extremist Kotleba-People’s Party Our Slovakia (LSNS). He studied technical and economic disciplines at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and obtained a doctoral degree. He worked at the university as a manager of projects supported by EU funds (2011-2014) and as a university teacher (2010-2015). He worked then as the director of the office of the Banská Bystrica self-governing region during Marian Kotleba’s tenure as governor until 2017. In 2016, he was elected to the national parliament. In 2019, he won a seat in the European elections despite being last on the L’SNS party list thanks to a high number of preferential votes.
Uhrík's popularity among the recipients of nationalist politics – alongside with the main face of Slovak right wing extremism and LSNS chairman Marián Kotleba – has grown in recent years. Tensions inside the LSNS grew between Kotleba and some members that resulted at the beginning of 2021 into departure of Uhrík and some other politicians (including 5 MPs) from the party. The party split mostly on the base of personal relations and conflicts, not in relations to the issues of extremist politics. On both sides, in the old and the new party, there are people with an equally strong right-wing–extremist history.
Milan Uhrík presents and supports in the EP clearly pro-Russian and anti-Western positions and justifies them either during debates in the EP plenary sessions or in public articles, videos or posts. He combines pro-Russian views with verbal attacks on the US and the West, including the EU. In December 2019, Uhrík condemned the European Parliament for approving three resolutions critical of Russia already in the first few months of its new term. He also suggested that the EU, NATO, NGOs linked to the US and financial speculators are also responsible for spreading misinformation.
In one of his speeches in the debate he spread a pro-Russian disinformation narrative about events in Ukraine in late 2013. He claimed that anti-government protests in Ukraine that year were organized by Western intelligence services and NGOs. Uhrík said that “If we want to help peace in Ukraine, first of all we must openly say how it all began. That these were the secret services and NGOs, also financed from Brussels, but mainly from Washington, who took advantage of the frustration of ordinary Ukrainians, the frustration from the oligarchy, corruption and that they organized Maidan first, and then the civil war started.”
In July 2019, in a debate on the situation in Venezuela, Uhrík said that “It is clear that the situation in Venezuela is – similarly as in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya – a result of an aggressive US foreign policy. Their secret services and the military, which stir up conflicts around the world, subvert the sovereign nation states that have operated so far without major problems, for oil, for money, for mineral resources.”
Uhrík serves as a prominent domestic actor of Russian influence in Slovakia. He was one of the most active Slovak politicians who spread conspiracy theories and misinformation narratives during the COVID-19 pandemic. He combined openly pro-Russian stances with anti-Americanism. Commenting on the Defender 2020 military exercise in Europe he wrote in March 2020 that “20,000 US troops, 13,000 US heavy tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters along with other military equipment are silently being landed in seven European countries. … For what purpose do the soldiers come to Europe? To help prevent the spread of the virus? Not at all! They come here in collaboration with NATO to provoke Russia and to try a war against Russia that could be run on the European continent”. According to Uhrík, the “US destroys the selected countries with military and economic sanctions, even at a time of a pandemic, simply because they are not ruled by politicians according to the American taste. Thank you, but the less America there is in the world, the better!”
He praised China and Russia for their alleged help to Europeans in combatting COVID-19: “Oh, what are those ‘bad’ Russians doing?? They are sending medical aid to the European states, even if they do not have to, and although they know that the Union will reward them again for this with nonsensical sanctions. China is also sending medical teams and equipment, although the West will only reward it later again with criticism for ‘not respecting human rights’.”
In July 2020 Uhrík called the “referendum” on amending the Russian constitution “an inspiration for Slovak politics.”
When the EP dealt with the issue of human and civil rights in Russia, Uhrík called it the "Anti-Russian hysteria in Brussels", which he said "had reached absurd proportions" and added that "the anti-Russian vocabulary is indeed already at the level of annoying war propaganda". In promotional image on his Facebook profile, he calls himself "the most pro-Slavic MEP" by uttering the phrase "I reject the anti-Russian rampage."
He commented on the expulsion of three Russian spies who worked under diplomatic cover in Bratislava (as Slovakia’s reaction to the explosion in the Czech city) in April 2021: "By expelling Russian diplomats, the Slovak government has made an active part of the anti-Russian conflict. It's more than enough anyway!" and he asked: "What is the expulsion of Russian diplomats good for? How will it help? Russia will expel 3 Slovaks in return and will it be good? Did we throw out Americans as they fuelled conflicts around the world?"
In the EP, Uhrik voted “against” critical resolutions dealing with Russia’s policies.
(Updated: 13/7/2021)
Uhrík claimed that while everyone was reporting on the coronavirus, thousands of US troops and tanks were transported to seven European countries. According to the MEP, they did not come to help prevent the spread of the virus, but to collaborate with NATO forces to provoke a war with Russia. He added that aggressive powers will not abandon their geopolitical goals because ordinary Europeans are dying.
