Britain’s Propaganda Machine and Its Influence Peddling in Slovakia’s Election

On July 16, 2025, Martin Williams reported for DECLASSIFIED UK that the UK Government contracted a Media agency called  Zinc Network to recruit and remunerate social media influencers across Europe. One of the Zinc Network’s projects has involved a campaign aimed at engaging young voters in the 2023 elections in Slovakia. The campaign was targeted at the pro-European Progressive Slovakia (PS) to the detriment of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party.  Zinc Network is a British communications agency that works with governments, communities, businesses, and NGOs to help them achieve their political or geopolitical aims in various countries around the World. 

From 2021 to 2022, London-based Zinc Network was the recipient of a contract (72011421P00008) awarded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to carry out a “pro-vaccination communication campaign”. Earlier in 2019, Zink Network was awarded a contract (H9227619P0094) by the US Department of Defense for a project related to a Public Service Announcement (PSA) mission for radio networks. USAID has a long history of meddling in eastern and central European politics, for instance, in countries such as Hungary, where USAID attempted to seed a colour revolution in 2023, following Viktor Orban’s victory in the April 2022 election. Coincidentally, Slovakia is now accusing its NATO ally, Britain, of a £10m plot to meddle in its 2023 election, and has now summoned British Ambassador Nigel Baker to discuss these troubling revelations. During a press briefing on Tuesday, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico stated

 “There was a targeted deliberate activity by a foreign power, which is our ally in Nato, in cooperation with some Slovak journalists and in cooperation with some Slovak political influencers, to influence the election in 2023.”

VIDEO: “We Have Clear Evidence” — Slovak PM Accuses UK of Meddling in 2023 Elections (Source: APT)

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In 2022, Zink Network entered into a three-year agreement valued at £9,450,000 with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to deliver media consulting services. This initiative is, according to Declassified UK, part of a broader 30-year strategy by the UK Government aimed at offering balanced and independent perspectives to a larger audience in these regions. However, the details of the contract have remained unclear. A comprehensive 2021 report from Grayzone establishes in great detail how British Foreign Office FCO’s projects have for years been executed secretly in collaboration with independent media organisations like Bellingcat, Meduza, and Mediazona, founded by Pussy Riot. Bellingcat reportedly received UK FCO support during the 2019 North Macedonia elections for the pro-NATO candidate. It was the Zinc Network that was managing the operation, claiming to have built a ‘network of YouTubers in Russia and Central Asia’ and facilitated international payments without registering as external funders. Reportedly, the London-based company (Zinc Net ) has secured contracts with various government agencies in Washington, London, and Kyiv to fight against Russian so-called ‘disinformation’ during the conflict in Ukraine. The January 2025 FCDO departmental spending report confirms 9 payments made to Zinc Network, labelled as “International Relations and International Cooperation,” or PPM Consultancy, for an amount approximating £615,000 just for January 2025.

According to Jaroslav Daniška from the outlet DENNÍK N, the NGO Memo 98, which has been monitoring media and elections in Slovakia and around the world since the 1990s, received funding from the Zinc Network for one of its activities. It was the editorial staff of the daily Postoj who discovered that Memo 98 had received money from the British firm, before the 2023 parliamentary elections. Memo 98 received about 63,000 euros from the British firm, most of it for promoting an election calculator on the Infovölby portal. In effect, 50,000 euros were allocated for the creation and promotion of an election calculator, which was part of infovolby.sk, a Slovakian organisation supported by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) based in the USA. Infovolbys claims to be specialised in ‘monitoring’ the media (both traditional and social); however, the election calculator was designed to assist those struggling to make a voting decision, essentially aiming to sway young Slovakian voters’ choices.

As stated by MEMO 98 director Rasťa Kužela, an additional nearly 35,000 euros were secured from the British Foreign Office Fund (UK FCDO). This funding was earmarked for the campaign “I Want to Stay Here” (Chcem tu zostať), which featured a variety of social figures, including actors, influencers, and journalists, such as Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová, former prime minister Iveta Radičová, and hockey player Michal Handzuš. The main protagonists of the campaign or related work, were the Civic Platform for Democracy, Memo 98, the Open Society Foundation, the Pontis Foundation, Nadácia otvorenej spoločnosti (Open Society), NADÁCIA (Slovak Savings Bank Foundation), and Zastavme korupciu, just to name a few. Dozens of other NGOs were also involved.

IMAGE: “I Want to Stay Here” (Chcem tu zostať) campaign 

Slovakia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry State Secretary Marek Estok has declared that the country will approach the European Union regarding this issue. He aims to bring it up in the EU Council for Relations Between the EU and the United Kingdom. Additionally, Slovakia will request the European Commission to assess and explore ways to officially address the matter with Great Britain. Zinc Network is part of a clandestine effort by London and likely Washington to undermine any nations that dare to show support or at least maintain a balanced perspective on Russia.

The extent of election interference by the EU, US, and UK has escalated significantly, showcasing once again that the pro-NATO Euro-Atlantists group is willing to take extreme measures, not to say illegal, to reinforce its political and geopolitical supremacy, stretching from the Baltic states to the South Caucasus and ultimately affecting nations in central and eastern Europe. MARKER has the story…

Tomas Dugovic reports for Marker…

The British government secretly paid influencers for political propaganda in Slovakia

The goal was to damage Smer and support PS. The names of the recipients of the money and partners remain undisclosed, allegedly due to the looming risks.

Six months ago, an unusual thing happened. Today, former British ambassador Nigel Baker criticised Robert Fico for his interview with Russian media and criticism of the West for not wanting peace in Ukraine. Prime Minister Fico countered with harsh words that Slovakia is not a colony of Great Britain, so he will say what he sees fit.

Ambassador Baker responded that “it is normal for allies to have open conversations and that sometimes it is important to express those differences publicly.”

Fico and Baker had a very close relationship in the past, which is why the Slovak prime minister was surprised by this conflict.

But one thing was not said then, and we only learn about it today. It’s not about what was said publicly, but what was done behind the scenes. The British government is secretly funding hundreds of foreign influencers whose job is to make political propaganda on YouTube.Informed. This is what the British investigative platform Declassified UK reported this month.

The work is being coordinated by London-based media agency Zinc Network on behalf of the Foreign Office there, under a deal worth almost £10 million, with the money coming from local taxpayers.

Influencers are forced to sign legal contracts under the controversial collaboration that prohibit them from disclosing government involvement, and government officials reportedly provide feedback on each video before creators publish it.

Speaking to Declassified, one former employee called Zinc’s work “state propaganda” and accused it of interfering in foreign elections. Another employee said the relationship with some influencers was “extremely exploitative.”

British journalists managed to uncover a controversial foreign interference scheme thanks to whistleblowers, leaked documents, the Freedom of Information Act and an analysis of dozens of profiles on the career social network LinkedIn.

They only named Slovakia

Well, and it concerns us quite directly. According to investigative journalists, dubious campaigns are taking place mainly in several countries in Western and Eastern Europe, but the only country that openly mentioned the Declassified UK project is Slovakia.

“Part of the work included a campaign to mobilise young voters in the 2023 Slovak elections. These elections were ultimately won by Robert Fico’s left-wing nationalist party Smer, which is perceived as ‘pro-Russian’ and ‘dependent on older voters’ – compared to the younger, pro-European Progressive Slovakia party,” the journalists wrote.

One former employee told them that Zinc Network’s campaign targeting younger voters in our state amounted to “interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.” The source said the company’s executives “see the world through British eyes,” adding, “It felt like dictating the will of foreigners.”

Declassified did not specify which local influencers may have participated in the campaign, but several of them lobbied in favor of Progressive Slovakia, or subliminally and repeatedly spread its key narratives.

The British government is silent about the recipients of the money

In response to a parliamentary question on the Zinc project last month, the government admitted that it “provides feedback on social media videos” to “ensure compliance with the overall project objectives and conflict sensitivity and gender equality criteria.” However, the statement said:

“Given the risks these projects pose to our partners and beneficiaries, we are not disclosing detailed information about them.”

“We operate in accordance with all applicable laws and our own ethical frameworks regarding transparency and duty of care, which have been reviewed by an independent media ethicist,” Zinc Network argued in a statement.

To clarify, Zinc Network was founded under a different name in 2008 by Robert Elliott, who previously worked for the British Conservative Party. The company has at one time set up secret Muslim news platforms on Facebook as part of the government’s prevention of extremism, or worked with USAID to make people in the Caucasus “more resilient to hostile Russian influence.”

It violates the rules.

Rules set out by the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) state: “If an influencer is paid in any form… and the brand has joint control over the content, the post must be clearly identifiable as an advertisement.” The rules further state that “advertisements must not be materially misleading by omitting the identity of the marketer.”

YouTube has also pledged to alert viewers to state-sponsored content in the past, but nothing like that happened with Zinc Network videos. Not to mention that allies, as outgoing Ambassador Baker said, simply don’t do such things. Marker also contacted the Progressive Slovakia and Smer parties to request a statement on these findings. We will update the article.

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Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2025/07/30/britains-propaganda-machine-and-its-influence-peddling-in-slovakias-election/