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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Sunday. This was one of the Russian president’s few meetings with an EU leader since he ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago.
The visit, which was not announced in advance but was confirmed by the Kremlin on Sunday when it released a video of Fico shaking Putin’s hand, comes amid a standoff between Slovakia and Ukraine over energy security.
The visit follows a tense meeting between Fico and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Kiev’s plans to stop the transit of Russian gas through its territory from early 2025.
The threat from Kiev poses a serious challenge for Slovakia, which, along with Hungary and Austria, is one of three EU states heavily dependent on Russian gas piped through Ukraine.
Russian and Western politicians are also increasing contact in the run-up to Donald Trump’s inauguration as US President in January.
“President Putin said he wanted to meet with me as soon as possible,” Trump said Sunday. “We must end this war.”
Trump has claimed he could find a solution to the conflict and bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine within “a day,” raising the prospect that he could insist that Kiev accept a peace deal that is significantly more favorable to Moscow.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke by phone with Putin last month for the first time in two years, as European leaders prepare for what the start of Trump’s second term might bring and discuss how to drum up support for the Ukraine can maintain.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico arrived at the Kremlin. The Slovak head of government had previously planned to discuss the issue of gas transit through Ukraine with the Russian president. pic.twitter.com/GMKECGSINf
— OSINTWarfare (@OSINTWarfare) December 22, 2024
Fico’s visit was planned several days ago, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state television journalist on Sunday. He added that Putin and Fico met “in person” and were likely to discuss current affairs and the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine.
Fico earlier this week questioned Ukraine’s plans to cut off gas supplies and asked why it had “the right to harm the economic national interests” of an EU member state.
He also rejected Kiev’s claims that Slovakia earns about $500 million a year from trading cheaper Russian gas, some of which is then transported from Slovakia to the neighboring Czech Republic.
Fico, who survived an assassination attempt has taken a friendlier stance towards Moscow than other EU heads of state this year.
The Slovak Prime Minister rejected the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. His stance is similar to that of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in neighboring Hungary, who also visited Moscow in July this year, sparking outrage among his counterparts across Europe.
Orbán said on Saturday that he also planned further talks with Moscow and Kiev to keep the gas flowing, telling journalists that Budapest was “trying the trick” of relabeling the gas as Hungarian when imported into Ukrainian territory.
Orbán’s plans call for Hungarian or other EU companies to buy Russian gas directly on the Ukrainian-Russian border and then pay the transit fee to Kiev. Neither Brussels nor Kyiv had agreed to the proposal.
Sunday’s visit was the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Fico in eight years, state news agency Tass reported.
Additional reporting by Steff Chavez in New York
