While searching my name in Google Scholar, I came across the following… interesting article:

USING THE TOPIC OF MIGRATION BY PROKREMLIN PROPAGANDA: CASE STUDY OF SLOVAKIA. Š IŽAK – Journal of Comparative Politics, 2019 – search.ebscohost.com

Here is the journal website,

Journal of Comparative Politics is the semiannually journal of the Consortium of three Central European universities (University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia; University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; Alma Mater Europaea – European Centre Maribor, Slovenia). The Journal of Comparative Politics journal started in 2007 to meet the needs of political scientists throughout the world interested in the advancement of their discipline and in escaping the parochialism threatening the pursuit of knowledge within the confines of a single culture. The journal focuses on the comparison of political cultures of Central and Eastern European countries, their practical policy, theoretical questions of comparative political science, theoretical and practical questions of the development of civil society and civil policy in this region.

Here is a PDF of the issue in question.

And here is the citation in question:

Bad Russian Propagandist Karlin even maligning PISA to advance his demented anti-Western conspiracy theories!

Now what could this be referring to?

The reference Gdovin 2018b leads to this article: Globálna vzdelávacia inštitúcia skúma či školy vedú žiakov k “správnym” postojom ohľadom masovej migrácie, multikulturalizmu či globálnemu otepľovaniu (“The Global Educational Institution examines or schools lead pupils to “correct” attitudes towards mass migration, multiculturalism, or global warming”)

According to OECD criteria, “globally qualified students should have not only a positive attitude to cultural diversity, but they should also appreciate cultural diversity as a contribution to society and a desirable goal for the future.” … Moscow blogger and researcher Anatoly Karlin warns against such an association of education ideology. He points out that in the former USSR, obtaining a diploma depended on whether your view was identical to that of the communist regime. The “global competence” test of the OECD shows that “neoliberalism is evolving in a similar direction,” he says.

Ah, now I recall it! Here is the article in question: PISA Will Now Test for Tolerance.

Apparently, pointing out that those bastions of the Alt Right International… such as England, France, and Germany – pointing out that even their representatives think asking questions like “do you respect the values of people from different cultures?” on international standardized cognitive tests might be taking things a bit too far – serves the Kremlin’s propaganda narrative.

Now as it happens, the comments to that article by Samuel Gdovin are predictably outraged by these ideas, so far as I can tell via Google Translate at any rate.

Top comments:

slnieckari (seeres) rinse the heads of the young and in 20 years we have the same manure as in the snow

Well, it’s up to our parents to get the pressure out of school !!

We did not have such a lavage at the Ostblok schools … I do not remember asking how much I love the Soviet Union for the questions tests, nor the question of whether the comradeship teacher is well aware of its values! I even allowed myself to refuse that fucking pioneer scarf and nothing happened!

Pure neo-marxism!

But guess what? Even in a “based” Visegrad country such as Slovakia, it is people like Štefan Ižak who rule the roost at the universities, and who are going to be setting the cultural agenda.

In other news, I am looking forwards to spandrell’s next essay on “Pol Potism as the Final Solution to the Universities Question.”

https://twitter.com/thespandrell/status/1080189420731580417