Representatives of the Slovak movement Brat za brata regularly appear at the Russian embassy in Bratislava, its leader Matúš Alexa met with the head of Russian intelligence Sergej Naryškin and received an award from Vladimir Putin from the hands of the Russian ambassador. The motorcycle club originally split from the Night Wolves gang, of which Putin is an honorary member and who assisted the Russians in the illegal annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea.
In Slovakia, the Brat za brata movement announces the establishment of its own secret service to search for the nation’s pests. “The cleansing of Slovakia is approaching. Every region, district, city, village,” announced this year on social networks. According to him, the time has come for a “modern partisan movement in Slovakia”.
As Seznam Zprávy found out, Brother for Brother is also trying to break into the Czech Republic. This week, on their Facebook page, which has almost 150,000 followers, a photo of children from the ninth grade of a primary school in Nové Jičín appeared. “At the request of teacher Tiché, a lecture on the Second World War was held on Friday for ninth-grade pupils,” the post presents, adding that the lecturer also showed the pupils Red Army uniforms and the children had a hard time with the Soviet PPŠ-41 Špagin submachine gun.
A photo of Czech children helped the pro-Putin gang in publicity. The post garnered almost two thousand reactions from fans. “Yes, this is a way to open children’s eyes and minds: Distorting history is the road to hell! You are great,” wrote one of them, for example.
The Brother for Brother movement on Facebook also attached a detailed, numbered outline of the interpretation. However, it lacks, for example, the information that in 1939, in addition to Nazi Germany, the Bolshevik Soviet Union also attacked Poland after the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact.
Photo: Facebook Brat za brata
This is how the pro-Putin biker gang presented a group photo of children on their Facebook page.
Trips to Czech piets
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Below the report is signed Rostislav Moščák, who claims to be a representative of the Tatras Spišská Bystré military history club. This club has long-term close cooperation with the organization Brat za brata and together they have activities in the Czech Republic.
For example, Red Army soldiers patrol graves from the Second World War with dummy machine guns and celebrate the liberation of Czechoslovakia. Moščák records Russian propaganda. For example, he shared a post on Facebook by SPD politician Jakub Zieba, who has been living in Russia for a long time. In it, Zieba falsely tried to argue that the blame for the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 lay not with the Russians, but with the Ukrainians.
Pieta uploading Putin’s propaganda
- As it follows from the facts collected by Seznam Zprávy, under the banner of the Military History Club, the Slovak pro-Russian organization has been trying to present itself at a number of commemorative military events in recent years.
- Last year, for example, members of the movement took part in honoring the victims of the Nazis in the Zlín region, and the year before last they posed in Ostrava on the occasion of the anniversary of the city’s liberation.
- Putin’s propaganda tries to highlight Russia’s merits in the fight against Nazism and claims that it is now “denazifying” Ukraine as well.
Before the reporters could even finish asking about Moščák’s cooperation with the Brat za brata movement, the man hung up the phone. Before that, however, he argued that the interpretation for children in Nové Jičín was balanced and that he did not see a problem in it.
“Based on the teacher’s request, I gave the lecture there. It was a summary from 1939 to 1945, with the fact that not only events from Eastern Europe, but also from Western Europe were presented there,” declared Moščák.
At the same time, however, he refused to comment on whether he had also told the pupils about the role of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the war and about the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. When asked repeatedly, he only said: “There was a report that Poland had been attacked by both Germany and the Soviet Union. What else do you want from me? I will not comment on that any more, and especially not to your editors.”
According to the headmistress of the elementary school in Nové Jičín, Svatava Hajdová, there was no “objectionable content” in the lecture. “The discussion on this topic was in accordance with the content of the elementary school curriculum, in accordance with the general education and the school curriculum,” the director told Seznam Zprávám. At the same time, however, she admitted that, according to her information, the information about the treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union from August 1939 was not heard during the conversation.
The teacher herself, who led the class, did not respond to phone calls or text messages with questions.
“Security Risk”
As soon as Seznam Správy became interested in the activities of people connected to Slovak bikers at the school, the post disappeared from their Facebook.
Security experts warn against the Slovak association. “This is a group that poses a security risk, as it is led by extremists with violent tendencies and connections to the Russian Federation. Letting representatives of Brat za Brata into Czech schools would be roughly the same as letting representatives of Vandas’s Workers’ Party into them,” said Roman Máca, an expert on Russian influence operations, for example.
A member of the prison service
As Seznam Zpravy found out, Moščák is a member of the judicial guard in Ostrava and is in charge of court security. Even before he deleted his Facebook profile after contact with reporters, he also presented himself with it on the social network.
The profile photo in which Moščák is posing in the period uniform of the Red Army also disappeared. On his chest is pinned the so-called St. George’s ribbon. It was originally a symbol of the victory over Nazism in the Second World War. Today, however, it is primarily used to express support for Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Photo: Moščák’s Facebook
In the now-deleted profile photo, Moščák posed in the period uniform of the Red Army.
The prison service claims that they will check Moščák’s actions. “I immediately forwarded the information you provided to the relevant control authorities for verification. Adequate measures will be taken if necessary,” responded the spokesperson of the Prison Service, Markéta Machová Prunerová.
Nové Jičín’s deputy mayor for education, Ondřej Syrovátka, also wants to check the lecture at the school.
Brother for Brother in coordination with Russia
The civic association was registered in 2019, but existed earlier. According to Daniel Milo, the former director of the Center for Combating Hybrid Threats of the Ministry of the Interior, the group is made up of former members of the Slovak branch of the Night Wolves.
According to Slovak sociologist Michal Vašečka, this is a pro-Putin, pro-Soviet, anti-Western organization that calls for pan-Slavism, i.e. that all Slavs belong together and come from one “mother”.
The Ján Kuciak Investigative Center drew attention to the fact that the Brat za Brata group is advancing on social networks in coordination with the Russian embassy in Slovakia. In 2022, the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marija Zakharova, also praised the Spanish ride.
According to the Ján Kuciak Investigative Center, the head of the association, Matúš Alexa, received an honorable mention from the Russian authorities for his active participation in the patriotic education of citizens and a medal from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for a great personal contribution to the preservation of the memory of those who fell in defense of the homeland.
Photo: Facebook Brat za brata
This year, the head of the Brat za brata movement, Matúš Alexa, received an award from Vladimir Putin from the hands of the Russian ambassador to Slovakia.
