Russian President Vladimir Putin on Dec. 22 met with Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico. Fico arrived in Russia on a “working visit” and met with Putin one-on-one on Sunday evening, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s RIA agency.
Putin and Fico focused on two issues, according to Peskov, Russian natural gas deliveries to Slovakia and other eastern European countries, and the “international situation,” including Ukraine.
On Dec. 19, in a meeting of the European Union to plead for more military aid, Ukraine’s unelected leader Volodymyr Zelensky, stated that he will halt the transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territory on January 1, reported Euro News. Slovakia receives Russian natural gas, upon whose receipt it is very committed, as Hungary is landlocked. In response to Zelensky’s peremptory decision, Fico stated, “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 spoke at the end of a one-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
