Slovak PM Fico Visits Russia for ‘Working Meeting’ with Dictator Putin Over Gas Dispute with Ukraine
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico made an unannounced visit to Moscow on Sunday for a ‘working meeting’ with dictator Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that the evening's talks had concluded and that the two leaders would not issue a joint statement.
Fico said the visit was a response to Ukraine's decision to stop gas transit from Russia.
‘My meeting today was a response to the statement of President Zelenskyy, who answered my personal question on Thursday, that he opposes any gas transit through Ukraine to our territory. Similarly, the Ukrainian president is in favour of sanctions against Russia's nuclear programme. With this position, he is causing financial damage to Slovakia and jeopardising the production of electricity at Slovakia's nuclear power plants, which is unacceptable,’ Fico wrote on Facebook.
‘In a long conversation with Putin, I exchanged views on the military situation in Ukraine, the possibility of an early peaceful end to the war and on mutual relations between the Slovak Republic and Russia, which I intend to standardise,’ Fico added.
The Slovak prime minister made the trip a few days after negotiations with the Ukrainian government on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Slovakia reached a ‘deadlock’ and Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he did not intend to extend the contracts until the end of the year. Ukraine intends to stop the transit of Russian gas on 1 January.
The Slovak leader tried unsuccessfully to get this position changed at the EU summit in Brussels earlier this week.
Fico is only the third EU leader to visit Russia for talks with Putin since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Previously, only Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer did so in April 2022, and most recently Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in July.
This year, the contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine signed between Naftogaz of Ukraine and Gazprom expires. Ukraine's position on this issue is unwavering: there will be no new contract with the aggressor state of Russia, which has been waging a full-scale war in Ukraine for three years.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is ready to transit gas to European countries if it is not gas of Russian origin.