Russia-friendly head of government outrages Slovakia with Putin visit

Slovak opposition politicians reacted angrily to Prime Minister Robert Fico’s trip to Moscow. “The prime minister should discuss gas transit for Slovakia in Kiev,” said Michal Simecka, head of the largest opposition party, to the TASR news agency. With his trip to Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, Fico is “just playing a lying theater for his voters,” said the head of the liberal Progressive Slovakia (PS). “And in doing so he is betraying his own country and leading us step by step away from Europe.”

Branislav Gröhling, head of the smaller liberal opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), formulated his criticism even more sharply: “Robert Fico is a disgrace for Slovakia. He does not behave like a head of government of a sovereign country, but like an ordinary collaborator.” Fico does not speak for the entire Slovak nation, said Gröhling.

Fico is one of the few European heads of government who still maintain close ties to Moscow. When he took over as prime minister again in 2023, he rejected further military aid to Kiev. Fico, like his Hungarian colleague Viktor Orban, is also committed to peace talks with Russia. At the end of November he announced that he would travel to Moscow next May at Putin’s invitation to commemorate the World War.

A few days ago, at the EU summit in Brussels, Fico tried in vain to avert the end of the transit of Russian gas to Slovakia. Fico repeatedly explained that Slovakia is threatened with a serious crisis because it is completely dependent on Russian gas and has hardly any alternatives.

Ukraine announced in the summer that it would not extend a contract with Russia for the transport of Russian gas to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines. The transit contract expires on December 31st. Slovakia and Hungary, which remain heavily dependent on Russian gas, fear gas supply problems.

In the conversation, Putin confirmed Russia’s willingness to “continue to supply gas to the West and Slovakia,” explained Fico.

Slovakia had received permission from the EU to continue purchasing Russian gas. However, this EU approval is worthless for Bratislava because its neighboring country Ukraine will no longer allow transit deliveries from the turn of the year.

At the most recent EU summit, there was an exchange of words between Fico and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which both politicians confirmed. Zelenskyj explained that while Slovakia only has economic problems, his country is losing lives every day.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not want to provide any specific information about the topics discussed during Fico’s visit.

However, he and Putin discussed the conflict in Ukraine and “the possibility of an early peaceful end” to the conflict, as Fico later said.