Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico made a statement following his visit to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Moscow. According to him, the visit was a response to Ukraine’s reluctance to continue the transit of gas from Russia to Europe.
Fico wrote about this on Facebook, as reported by Ukrinform.
Fico claims that he had informed European leaders in advance about his plans to meet with Putin.
“My meeting today was a response to the statement by Ukraine’s president, who told me during a personal conversation on Thursday that he opposes any gas transit through Ukraine to our territory. Likewise, the Ukrainian president supports sanctions against Russia’s nuclear program. Such a position causes financial harm to Slovakia,” the prime minister stated.
Fico says that Putin, on his part, confirmed Russia’s willingness to continue supplying gas to Europe, although this will no longer be possible after January 1, 2025.
“In a lengthy conversation with Putin, we exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine. We discussed the military situation in Ukraine, the possibility of a speedy peaceful resolution to the war, and mutual relations between Slovakia and Russia,” Fico added.
Since February 2022, visits by Western politicians — especially heads of state — to Russia have been extremely rare.
In the last three years, the only visitors to Moscow have been the Austrian chancellor and Fico’s political ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Budapest is negotiating with Russia and Ukraine to maintain gas supplies, even though Russian gas is imported through the Turkish Stream pipeline.
As reported, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko stated during the German-Ukrainian Business Forum in Berlin that Ukraine has long been preparing for the cessation of Russian gas transit, including testing the resilience of its gas transmission system (GTS).
This year, the transit contract for Russian gas through Ukraine — signed between Naftogaz of Ukraine and Gazprom — expires. Ukraine’s position on this issue is firm: no new agreement will be signed with the aggressor state.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready to transit gas to European countries only if it is not of Russian origin.
