Fico denies that the meeting with Putin was non-transparent, he also informed EU leaders about it

“`html

Bratislava – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) rejects that his December meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin was non-transparent. They were mainly supposed to deal with gas supplies. The Prime Minister reported this at Friday’s extraordinary meeting of the National Council SR Committee for European Affairs, which was initiated by the opposition and claims that he also informed EU leaders about this meeting, TASR reports.

In addition to discussions about gas, peace initiatives were the second topic, according to him.

“I asked the president for a ceasefire, whether it is possible to talk about it at least during the holidays,” said Fico. He added that they also talked with Putin about the possibility of organizing a peace summit in Slovakia.

The Prime Minister also rejected claims that his trip to Moscow was supposed to be non-transparent. “It was transparent, open, and everyone who needed to know about it knew,” he said. According to him, he also informed the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen about the meeting and called the President of the European Council Antóniam Costa about it. He also declared that the foreign policy orientation of Slovakia is not changing.

Fico visited Moscow last December, shortly after the EU summit, and met with the President of the Russian Federation Putin. The Slovak opposition criticized him for this visit.

Opposition parties also criticize the Vice Chairman of the National Council SR and the head of the Slovak National Party (SNS) Andrej Danko, who announced on Wednesday (January 8) that he also plans to go to Moscow and, with his visit to Russia, wants to build on the December meeting of Prime Minister Robert Fico and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It is important to gather information at the parliamentary level. I want to bring a lot of information from the field of economy,” said Danko. He added that the NR SR deputies from Smer-SD and SNS parties, who will go to Moscow with him, are also supposed to meet the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government and the Minister of Industry. According to him, deputies want to pay for the trip from their own money.

The SNS chairman had an official invitation to visit Russia from the chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, who is on the EU sanctions list. (January 10)

“I asked the president for a ceasefire, whether it is possible to talk about it at least during the holidays.” Robert Fico on the meeting with Vladimir Putin

“`