On the far-right periphery of an informal pro-Russian grouping within the European Parliament are two Slovak Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), Milan Uhrik and Milan Mazurek, representing the political movement Republika. Established in 2021 by former members of the Slovak neo-fascist party ĽSNS, of which both individuals were previously members, Republika is characterised as a far-right, populist and Eurosceptic formation. The two MEPs currently sit within the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, with Uhrik serving as one of its vice-presidents. Both have consistently opposed anti-Russian sanctions, military assistance to Ukraine and measures aimed at increasing Russian accountability for the full-scale invasion. Voting record analyses place them among the most pro-Russian MEPs in the current European Parliament.
In the early stages of their political careers, Uhrik and Mazurek participated in confrontational street actions organised under the auspices of ĽSNS. Open-source material, including reports by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, indicates that between 2015 and 2016 Mazurek took part in anti-Islamic demonstrations in Bratislava, during which he directed verbal abuse at refugees, including families with children, and threw stones. In September 2019 the Supreme Court of Slovakia convicted Mazurek of an offence involving racist statements directed at the Roma minority. He received a fine of €10,000 and became the first parliamentarian in the history of independent Slovakia to be stripped of his parliamentary mandate on disciplinary grounds.
ĽSNS (People’s Party – Our Slovakia), led by Marian Kotleba, acquired a neo-Nazi reputation through its glorification of the wartime regime of Jozef Tiso, denial of the Holocaust and public use of Third Reich symbolism. Kotleba himself received a criminal conviction in 2022. In addition to its domestic extremism, the party maintained links with Russia, advocated Slovakia’s withdrawal from NATO and the European Union, and cultivated contacts with pro-Kremlin influence networks and elements of Russian military intelligence.
In March 2021 Uhrik established Republika by acquiring and renaming an existing registered party, Hlas ľudu (Voice of the People). This procedural step allowed the new formation to circumvent the requirement under Slovak law to collect 10,000 citizen signatures for the registration of a new political party. In the June 2024 European Parliament elections Republika secured 12.53 per cent of the vote and two seats, which were taken by Uhrik and Mazurek. In the concurrent national parliamentary elections the party failed to surpass the five-per-cent threshold and therefore obtained no representation in the Slovak National Council.
The parliamentary activity of both MEPs has been marked by confrontational behaviour, frequent procedural disputes and statements aligned with Russian positions. Their contacts with Russian diplomatic representatives have attracted particular scrutiny. Data from the European Parliament’s official transparency register and reporting by EUobserver show repeated meetings with Russian diplomats in Brussels. On 27 March 2025 Mazurek met representatives of the Permanent Representation of the Russian Federation to the European Union; the encounter was recorded as a diplomatic meeting. Uhrik declared at least two meetings with senior Russian diplomats, dated 12 December 2024 and 29 January 2026. Journalistic commentary has suggested that the registered entries may understate the actual frequency of such contacts. Parliamentary disclosures by both MEPs also record meetings with representatives of Belarus, Russia’s closest military and political ally. The substance of these discussions remains undisclosed.
According to analyses produced by the research centre EUmatrix.eu and examination of official European Parliament voting records, MEPs affiliated with Republika have systematically opposed legislative packages concerning financial and military assistance to Ukraine as well as proposals to expand economic sanctions against Russia. In plenary interventions they have rejected attributions of responsibility to the Russian leadership, characterised European Union restrictive measures as “suicidal,” and reproduced narratives attributing primary responsibility for the conflict to NATO and the United States—narratives that closely mirror official Russian discourse.
The electoral failure of Republika in the Slovak national elections of autumn 2023 renders the presence of its two MEPs in Brussels particularly noteworthy. Lacking a domestic parliamentary mandate, Uhrik and Mazurek nevertheless utilise the European Parliament as a platform from which to oppose measures directed against Russia and to articulate positions that correspond closely to Kremlin messaging. Russian state-aligned media outlets have amplified these interventions, thereby contributing to the projection of an apparent constituency within the European Union favourable to the normalisation of relations with the Russian Federation.
Although limited in number, the two MEPs from Republika, operating within the broader ESN group, form part of a wider pattern of far-right political actors whose positions coincide with Russian strategic interests. This alignment contributes to the diffusion of hybrid influence that poses challenges to European political cohesion and collective security.