Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico held talks in Moscow on Sunday with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on gas supplies to Slovakia. He noted that Ukraine's refusal to extend a contract for the transit of Russian gas to European Union countries beyond 1 January made it virtually impossible to continue supplies. Fico is only the third prime minister of a European Union country to travel to Russia to meet Putin since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"Today I had a working meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in Moscow. I remind again that I am advocating a sovereign policy on all four sides," Fico wrote, noting that he had already informed EU officials about his trip to Moscow on Friday.
According to the Prime Minister, the meeting was a reaction to the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who reportedly told Fico that he was against any gas transit through Ukraine to Slovakia. "The Ukrainian president is also in favour of sanctions against Russia's nuclear programme. Such a stance financially harms Slovakia and threatens the production of electricity at nuclear power plants in Slovakia, which is unacceptable," he continued, adding that Putin confirmed Russia's readiness to continue supplying gas to the West and Slovakia. However, he said this would be "practically impossible" next year because of Zelensky.
"In a long conversation with V. Putin, we exchanged views on the military situation in Ukraine, the possibility of an early peaceful end to the war, and the mutual relations between the Slovak Republic and the Russian Federation, which I intend to standardize. This will be helped by activities related to the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the victory over fascism, where Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and other peoples of the former USSR played a decisive role," he added.
idnes.cz / kremlin.ru / gnews.cz-jav
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