Putin Meeting Was Response To Zelensky’s Gas Threats, Slovakia’s Fico Says

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico made a surprise visit to Moscow on Sunday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Slovakia is both a NATO and European Union member, making the visit rare and controversial.

Fico, who survived an assassination attempt on May 15 of this year, has been blasted by European leaders as cozying up to Putin. But Fico in response has proclaimed that Putin has been “wrongly demonized” by the West. He also characterized the Moscow visit as about defending Slovakia’s sovereignty and energy security.

“Top EU officials were informed about my journey and its purpose… on Friday,” Fico announced on Facebook amid the backlash over his trip. The Kremlin side has revealed scant details of the discussion, only saying that Putin met with him on a “working visit”.

But Fico, never one to back down from controversy and criticism, has offered the following explanation, “My meeting today was a response to Ukrainian President [Vladimir] Zelensky, who, answering my personal question on Thursday, said that he was against any transit of gas through Ukraine to our territory.”

Fico framed his Moscow visit as necessary to safeguard Slovakia’s sovereignty and energy security. He explained, as conveyed in Russian state media:

“Such attitudes financially harm Slovakia and threaten the operation of nuclear power plants in Slovakia, which is unacceptable,” Fico stated, adding it was his duty to protect and promote Slovakia’s “sovereign politics on all four directions.”

The Slovak PM further relayed in the aftermath of the meeting that Putin confirmed to him that Russia is willing to continue supplying gas to Slovakia, but that Ukraine’s refusal to renew the gas transit deal makes getting the supplies “practically impossible”.

He went on the attack, saying blame falls squarely on Kiev and its leader. “If anyone is going to prevent the transit of gas to the territory of the Slovak Republic, if anyone is going to cause an increase in gas prices on the territory of Europe, if anyone is going to cause enormous economic damage to the European Union, it is President Zelensky,” Fico said further.

Moscow has also openly acknowledged the practical difficulty of the situation in the wake of Fico’s visit:

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was a “complicated situation”, adding Russian gas is “necessary for the normal operation” of certain European countries’ economies.

Erik Kalinak, an MEP for Fico’s Smer party, has pushed back at home against opposition criticism of the trip, saying the prime minister is simply attempting to secure cheap gas imports for the nation. Some opposition street protests have emerged Monday, with people heard changing “traitor” due to Fico’s Moscow visit.

Despite laying blame on Zelensky for this current crisis, Fico has still recently said that he wants to be “good, friendly neighbor” to Ukraine.

Hungary too looks also bear the brunt of the negative consequences resulting from gas transit cutoff through Ukraine. Oil Price explains of both Slovakia and Hungary, “Slovakia has a long-term gas supply contract with Gazprom. The expiry of the transit deal with Naftogaz would interfere with that contract’s terms, which probably led to the visit to Moscow. Landlocked Slovakia and neighbor Hungary have few gas supply options that can compare on price with Russian pipeline gas.”