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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Dec. 22. After the talks, Fico wrote on Facebook that his trip had been motivated by Ukraine’s intention to curb the transit of Russian gas to Europe.
“My meeting today was a response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who answered my personal question on Thursday by saying that he is against any transit of natural gas through Ukraine to our territory”, the Slovak prime minister wrote.
Fico said Putin confirmed Russia's readiness to continue supplying gas to the West — and to Slovakia. However, Ukrainian authorities warned that they would stop the transit of Russian natural gas and oil to Europe starting from Jan. 1, 2025. On Dec. 20, after the EU summit in Brussels, Fico said that Slovakia would face a gas crisis as a result of Volodymyr Zelensky's decision.
Fico also noted that Zelensky favors imposing sanctions against Russia's nuclear energy program, saying, “This attitude causes financial damage to Slovakia and threatens the production of electricity at Slovakia's nuclear power plants, which is unacceptable.”
During their meeting, Putin and Fico also “exchanged views on the combat situation in Ukraine,” discussed “possibilities for an early peaceful end to the war,” as well as relations between Russia and Slovakia.
Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said before the meeting that Putin and Fico did not plan to make joint statements to the media. The conversation was organized in a one-on-one format. On the Russian side, however, Putin's foreign affairs aide Yuri Ushakov was present, as was an interpreter.
Fico's visit was planned on short notice. He became the third European leader to visit Moscow since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have also each paid an official visit to the Kremlin despite the ongoing war.