Well, times were different. People thougth that EU is gioing to magically everything perfect. And also, there were much less disinformation campaign (i would say almost none), as average people did not have internet.
If you do not live here you cant possibly understand how big disinformation wars are here. Slivakia is almost like a trainig field for every different type and approaches to this "tactic", which are then used in other countries.
Its hard to see people you respect be completly brainwashed and blinded by something, they would think is normal 20 years ago. But it is what it is :(
I know its not related to story, but that militiya officer in photo has interesting rifle in hands. Its seems to me, that it is not Mosin, but rather canadian Ross rifle, which is quite uniq thing in wild and even more in Soviet Union. Some Lend Lease mistery i guess.
But thanks for the story, interesting indeed :)