BRATISLAVA, Aug. 30 -- At the 82nd anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising, Prime Minister Robert Fico used one of Slovakia's most politically weighted platforms on Saturday to make a pointed argument about what he described as Europe's fundamental political failure: the demonization of Russia.

"Every state must respect the legitimate security interests of another state," Fico said at the ceremony, broadcast live by Slovak television. "Yes, Russia must be criticized when it makes mistakes, but Russia cannot be demonized and pushed out of Europe."

The setting carried deliberate weight. The Slovak National Uprising - Slovenske narodne povstanie - began on August 29, 1944, when Slovak resistance forces and Soviet-backed partisans rose ...