Putin received Slovakian Fico in Moscow to talk about gas

(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin received Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the Kremlin on Sunday, as Ukraine plans to end the contract allowing Russian natural gas to pass through its territory on January 1, Russian media report.

Access to Russian gas is crucial for Slovakia due to its landlocked situation and Robert Fico, known to be close to Russia, has not spared his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, without succeeding in influencing the latter.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency that the two leaders would not make a joint statement after their meeting, which he said was organized “a few days ago.”

Robert Fico specified on his Facebook account that he had informed the “highest European leaders” on Friday of his intention to go to Moscow, Volodimir Zelensky having reiterated during the European summit held on Thursday in Brussels his intention to end the contract with Russia.

The head of the Slovak government is only the third European leader to visit the Kremlin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, following Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in April 2022 and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban last July.

Slovakia has concluded a long-term contract with the Russian gas giant Gazprom and assures that a supply not passing through Ukraine would cost it 220 million euros in additional transit costs.

Hungary, which also receives Russian gas via Ukraine, will continue to be supplied by Moscow but via the TurkStream gas pipeline built at the bottom of the Black Sea.

(Written by Reuters with Jason Hovet in Prague, French version Tangi Salaün)