Putin received Fico, they are discussing the supply of Russian gas

The expected topic of the meeting, which was also reported by the TASS press agency, is the supply of Russian gas to Slovakia. According to earlier information, Fico was supposed to go to Moscow only on Monday.

Fico wanted to discuss with Putin that Ukraine intends to stop transiting Russian gas to Europe from January 1, 2025. The Kremlin, Fico, or the Slovak government office have not yet commented on this information. The Slovak opposition strongly condemns Fico’s visit to Moscow.

Peskov said that Fico’s visit to Moscow was planned a few days ago. According to him, “it can be assumed” that Putin and Fico will discuss the topic of Russian gas, but that it is necessary to wait until the end of the meeting.

According to TASS, this is the first meeting between Fico and Putin since 2016. In addition to the interpreter, Putin’s adviser on international affairs, Yuriy Ushakov, is also participating in the meeting.

Slovakia receives gas from the Russian company Gazprom. However, from the beginning of next year, Ukraine does not want to allow the transit of this Russian raw material through its territory, which Bratislava criticizes.

Fico already said on Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with whom he held talks on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels, is harming the interests of Slovakia by rejecting the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. On the contrary, Zelenskyi claimed that Kyiv will only allow the transit of gas from other countries, i.e. not from Russia.

On Bratislava’s objection that it will lose money by stopping transit, Zelenskyj noted that his country is losing much more by facing Russian aggression from February 2022.

The meeting between Putin and Fice was immediately recorded by the Ukrainian media. The newspaper Ukrainska pravda wrote that Fico’s visit to Russia is his “first trip to this aggressor state since (Fico’s) return to power in 2023.”

After Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Fico is the third European leader to visit Moscow since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, added the newspaper.

Pavel Fischer, head of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, reacted to Fico’s visit to the Kremlin. According to him, the visit threatens Slovakia’s allies, including the Czech Republic.