BRATISLAVA, Oct 2 (AFP) - Slovakia on Monday (Oct 2) accused Moscow of interfering in its election at the weekend that was won by a populist pledging to end military help for Ukraine.
Robert Fico was tapped on Monday to form a new government after his party finished first on a platform that raised concern about cracks in Kyiv's Western support.
Slovakia alleged meddling following pre-election remarks by Moscow's foreign intelligence service director claiming Slovakia's pro-Ukraine centrist party were "US proxies".
That party, Progressive Slovakia, finished second with 18 per cent of the vote to Fico's Smer-SD's 23 per cent in the polls.
"We consider such deliberately disseminated misinformation to be inadmissible interference by the Russian Federation in the electoral process in the Slovak Republic," Slovakia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The foreign ministry on Monday summoned a Russian embassy official and called on Moscow to "stop disinformation activities aimed at Slovakia".
Moscow rejected the accusations of meddling, saying "we do not interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries and we do not engage in regime change".
During the election campaign, the 59-year-old Fico vowed that NATO member Slovakia would not send "a single round of ammunition" to Ukraine and called for better ties with Russia.