Moscow (TDI): Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has made a surprise visit to Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin – becoming only the third Western leader to meet the Russian leader since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Fico – a vocal critic of the European Union’s (EU) support for Ukraine in the war – said they discussed supplies of Russian gas to Slovakia – which his country relies on, BBC reported.
An agreement with Russian gas giant Gazprom to transit energy through Ukraine to Slovakia is due to expire at the end of the current year.
Fico said that the top EU officials were informed about his visit and its purpose on Friday.
However, the trip has gone down badly with opposition parties at home and with Slovakia’s neighbouring EU and Nato ally, the Czech Republic.
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Jan Lipavsky, Czech Foreign Minister, stated that his government had secured energy independence from Russia, and he was thinking of Ukrainians who could not spend Christmas with their loved ones because of Putin.
In Bratislava, Michal Simecka of Progressive Slovakia stated that Fico had made his state a tool for the Russian leader’s propaganda and his visit was a “disgrace for Slovakia and a betrayal of national interests”.
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The Slovak Prime Minister said the meeting in Moscow was a reaction to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling EU leaders that Kyiv remained opposed to Russian gas being piped through its territory.
Fico added that he had detailed talks with Putin and the discussed the military situation in Ukraine”.
Both discussed “the possibilities of an early, peaceful end of the war” and mutual ties between Russia and Slovakia, Fico wrote on Facebook.
