Robert Fico è a Mosca per negoziare con Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding talks with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Kremlin.

This was reported by VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin on the Telegram channel and published footage from the meeting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also confirmed the joint meeting to TASS. The Slovak prime minister was expected to go to Russia on Monday. According to Peskov, Fico’s visit to Moscow was planned a few days ago. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced earlier on Saturday that Fico intends to hold talks with Putin on gas supplies because Ukraine has refused to extend the agreement on gas transit through its territory. Fico is the third representative of a European Union state to visit Moscow since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In addition to the Slovak prime minister, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also visited Moscow. This is the first personal meeting between Putin and Fico since 2016. The Slovak prime minister also posted a video on Telegram of him shaking hands with the Russian president. Putin’s advisor Yuri Ushakov also attended the meeting.

Korčok: It is a betrayal of allies and Slovakia

Robert Fico’s negotiations with Vladimir Putin did not go unnoticed on the domestic political scene either. PS leader Michal Šimečka called the trip a shame for Slovakia and a betrayal of national interests. “If the prime minister really cared about gas transit, he should have negotiated with the Ukrainian side, and not made Slovakia a tool of Russian propaganda,” he said. PS presidium member and former head of diplomacy Ivan Korčok called Robert Fico’s trip a turning point in Slovak foreign policy. “After the debacle in Brussels at the EU summit, when no one in the European Union supported him with a request to maintain gas transit through Ukraine, the prime minister went to stand next to the Russian president. It is a betrayal of allies and Slovakia, it is a turning point in our foreign policy, for which the prime minister has no mandate,” concluded Korčok. According to SaS chairman Branislav Gröhling, Robert Fico is “an ordinary collaborator.” “Our country thus finds itself in international isolation. We send a message to Vladimir Putin and all servile pro-Russian politicians that Robert Fico does not speak for the entire nation,” said the SaS leader. In response to today’s events, the Peace for Ukraine initiative announced that it is organizing a protest against Fico’s actions on Monday. It will take place at noon on Freedom Square opposite the Government Office. “The misuse of the topic of gas transit against Ukraine and Europe for collaboration with Russia is unacceptable,” the initiative claims on the social network.

Slovakia interested in Russian gas

Fico has previously said that Zelensky’s decision not to extend the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine will plunge Slovakia into a crisis, TASS reports, adding that Slovakia, according to the prime minister, is interested in buying cheap Russian gas and ensuring its transit to other EU countries. Russian gas supplies through Ukraine are expected to stop on January 1, when the five-year contract expires. Ukraine has previously said it does not plan to extend the contract. Russian President Putin said at his annual press conference on Thursday that there will definitely be no new contract for Russian gas supplies through Ukraine.

Fico de Putin!

He can stay there. Share a bunk bed with Assad.

“Negotiating” surely is an interesting choice of words…

Garbage to garbage 🗑️🙅‍♂️

I could see Putin smelling blood in the water with Trump coming back and he may go back to his maximalist claims of removing NATO troops from Eastern Europe. Maybe instead we could kick out Slovakia (and Hungary while we are at it).

Why not in Warsaw and make a pact?

Hope he swallows