Pavol Rusko is retired Slovak politician, television magnate and convicted fraudster. He served as the Minister of Economy of Slovakia between 2003 and 2005 and Managing Director of TV Markíza, at the time Slovakia's most viewed private TV station, between 1996 and 2000. He currently serves a 19-year prison sentence for forging promissory notes in a conspiracy to defraud TV Markíza.
Early life
Pavol Rusko studied Journalism at the Comenius University, graduating in 1987. Already as a student, he worked as Sports anchor at the Slovak public TV broadcaster and was active in the Czechoslovak Socialist Youth Union. In 1994 he left journalism to become a businessman, co-founding and since 1995 acting as the CEO of TV Markíza.
CEO of Markíza
In mid 1990s, Rusko planned to start the first private television broadcaster in Slovakia. The starting capital was provided by a Slovak entrepreneur living in Germany Silvia Volzová an American-owned media conglomerate [Central European Media Enterprises]. TV Markíza started broadcasting on the 31st August 1996, quickly gaining massive viewership. From the beginning, Markíza was critical of the government of Slovakia's autocratic prime minister Vladimír Mečiar, despite the amicable personal relationship between Mečiar and Rusko.
In the late summer 1998, the private security hired by Rusko's former university classmate Marián Kočner and his business partner Štefan Agh, supported by Volzová who had grown hostile to Rusko's conduct, took control of TV Markíza premises, claiming Kočner's company Gamatex was entitled to take over the broadcaster due to an unpaid debt by Rusko. Markíza's own security personnel along with station's employees attempted to resist the hostile takeover but were powerless against described by Rusko's Deputy Pavlík as "the most ruthless thugs in the underworld".
The takeover of Markíza caused popular uproar, being perceived by the public as an attempt to silence the popular opposition-supporting broadcaster. Thousands of people attended spontaneous rallies protesting the takeover nearby TV Markíza's premises as well as in other cities around Slovakia. The rallies were supported by many popular artists as well as opposition politicians, including future prime ministers Mikuláš Dzurinda and Robert Fico. The crisis ended when Kočner agreed to end his occupation of Markíza and settle the matter in court. The conflict between Kočner and Rusko lasted until 2000, when Markíza paid off Kočner.
Rusko remained the CEO of Markíza until 2000. Even though he was no longer the CEO, Rusko likely retained a degree of control over Markíza, which strongly supported his new political project Alliance of the New Citizen (ANO). The extent of the support was such, that Markíza got repeatedly fined by the regulator for failing to objectively inform about political developments and even its broadcasting license got in danger. This situation lasted until 2005, when [Central European Media Enterprises] paid off Rusko and took over almost all outstanding shares of TV Markíza.
Political career
Rusko got elected to the National Council in 2002, on the top of the ANO party election list, which received 8% in the 2002 Slovak parliamentary election. After the election, he served as a deputy speaker of parliament. In 2003, he became the Minister of Economy. In 2005 he was fired by the prime minister Mikuláš Dzurinda, after it became public knowledge that Rusko borrowed a substantial sum of money from a controversial businessman.
Following his sacking, Rusko returned to the parliament. In response to the sacking, Rusko attempted to take his party out of the governing coalition, however a majority of ANO's MPs rebelled against his leadership and continued supporting the government. Rusko attributed the rebellion to bribery of the individual MPs, releasing multiple secret recordings of them admitting receiving bribes in a private conversation with Rusko. The allegations of bribery of MPs nonetheless did not result in a collapse of the government, which stayed in power for another year.
Rusko served as an MP until 2006, when ANO failed to pass the 5% representation threshold in the 2006 Slovak parliamentary election. In 2007 he resigned as the chairman of ANO and retired from politics.