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After meeting with the controversial Tate brothers, Parliamentary Defence Committee chair Richard Glück (Smer) has now crossed paths with another of his idols — Hollywood actor and Putin ally Steven Seagal.
The encounter took place last week during Glück’s trip to Moscow, where he attended a gala marking the 20th anniversary of Russian state television RT, a network known for spreading Kremlin propaganda abroad, Sme daily reports.
The gala was held at the Bolshoi Theatre, where Russian President Vladimir Putin also gave a speech.
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Spreading misinformation
While in Moscow, Glück gave a nine-minute interview to RT, titled “Western media never explain the root causes of the war in Ukraine.” In it, he spoke admiringly of his meeting with Seagal, criticised Slovak media for allegedly taking sides, and praised so-called “alternative” media— in other words, pro-Russian conspiracy outlets.
Glück also repeated a false claim that Slovak media allegedly concealed information about former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The rumour — spread also by Smer MEP Ľuboš Blaha — asserts that Johnson received a million-dollar gift from an arms industry businessman and later persuaded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to agree to a peace deal with Russia shortly after the war began.
Pro-Russian circles often cite a Guardian investigation, which only questioned the businessman’s motives for visiting Ukraine with Johnson in September 2023 — well over a year after the March–April 2022 peace talks.
When Sme asked Glück about his Moscow trip, he refused to comment, saying he does not communicate with the paper’s editorial staff. He declined to say who invited him or whether he travelled alone. Sme found that the trip was private, not official. Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee chair Marián Kéry (Smer) said that no MPs had made an official visit to Moscow recently.
Earlier this year, Glück travelled to Moscow with Deputy Speaker Andrej Danko (SNS), fellow Smer MP Tibor Gašpar, and other legislators. At the time, Glück claimed that “everything works fine” in Russia and even pointed to the availability of toilet paper as proof of normalcy.
Richard Glück during the interview with RT. (source: Screengrab/RT)
“No one could deter me”
Following his latest trip, Glück posted on social media defending his decision.
“I am not a politician who pays for PR articles or one controlled by the media and NGOs,” he wrote. “Despite great efforts to build a new Iron Curtain between East and West, nothing could deter me from travelling to Russia and sending a clear signal that Slovakia wants a sovereign foreign policy in all directions.”
He added that Europe cannot move forward without Russian resources, arguing that Slovakia has an interest in maintaining dialogue with Moscow.
Glück also claimed he met with partners from Serbia and the EU, as well as Errol Musk, the father of Elon Musk, who he said “views the world the same way as we do.”
In conclusion, Glück thanked “alternative” media outlets for offering “another perspective” instead of what he called “the only right and correct one.”