Pavol Zachar

It may read like a cheap thriller, but for the outside world these events helped support then-US secretary of state Madeleine Albright's claim that Slovakia had become a "black hole in the heart of Europe" under Meciar.

To many, this comes as no surprise. Observers point out that a peculiar "question everything" mentality has taken hold among Slovaks - a reference to the motto of RT, the television channel and website formerly known as Russia Today that's described by the New York Times as "a case study in the complexity of modern propaganda".