Russian President Vladimir Putin received Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the Kremlin on Sunday, while Ukraine plans to end on January 1 the contract allowing Russian natural gas to transit through its territory, 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.”
The Slovak government did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters.
Robert Fico 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 in July last.
Slovakia has concluded a long-term contract with Russian gas giant Gazprom GAZP.MM and says a supply not passing through Ukraine would cost it 220 million euros in additional transit costs.
Robert Fico raised this question during the European summit on Thursday in Brussels, in the presence of Volodimir Zelensky who confirmed his intention to end the contract with Russia.
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)
