Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the Kremlin on Sunday, marking a rare visit to Moscow by an EU leader since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Fico arrived in Russia for a “working visit” and met President Putin face-to-face on Sunday evening, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency RIA.
According to the spokesperson, the discussions focused on the “international situation” and Russian natural gas supplies.
Visits and phone calls from European leaders to the Russian president have been rare since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine, although Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Russia in July. Orban’s visit was condemned by Kyiv and European leaders.
Fico’s views on Russia’s war in Ukraine contrast sharply with those of other European leaders. The Slovak Prime Minister returned to power last year after his left-wing Smer party won parliamentary elections with a pro-Russian and anti-American platform.
Since then, he has halted his country’s military aid to Ukraine, criticized EU sanctions against Russia, and pledged to block Ukraine’s NATO membership.
Fico was also one of the rare high-level EU politicians to appear on Russian state TV after Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.
In an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel in October, he claimed that the West “prolonged the war” by supporting Ukraine, adding that sanctions against Russia had been ineffective.
He stated that he was willing to negotiate with Putin and also pledged to attend a military parade in Moscow next May to mark the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II.
The Kremlin has used the annual “Victory Day” celebrations to showcase its military capabilities, and this year, Putin hailed Russian troops fighting in Ukraine as “heroes” during the event. /VOA
