Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico, met with the Russian President Vladímir Putin in Moscow this Sunday. The visit was not announced beforehand and it marks one of the few times of a European leader meeting with Putin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The only times had been by Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, in 2022 -when the invasion started- and by Hungary’s Prime Minister, Victor Orbán, in 2022 and 2024.
This meeting has place few days before the gas transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires the 1st of January of 2025. According to Reuters, the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal affirmed two weeks ago that the agreement will not be extended. “If the European Commission officially approaches Ukraine about the transit of any gas other than Russian, we naturally will discuss it and are ready to reach an appropriate agreement,” Shmyhal said.
As the think tank Bruegel published, this pipeline carries approximately 50% of the Russian gas supplied to Europe and accounts for one-third of Russia’s total gas exports. The issue is of special importance for EU members such as Hungary and Slovakia, for whom Russia is the main gas provider. Fico’s country represents the main importer of Russian fossil fuels within the European Union, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Robert Fico has had a keen stance towards Russia since its electoral takeover in 2023. The Prime Minister has criticized in several occasions the economic sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine and has prevented the extension of Slovakia’s military aid to the country.
Now it remains to be seen if –although unlikely- there will be a new type of gas agreement between the EU, Ukraine and Russia or if –on the contrary- the Ukrainian pipelines can be re-used for importing gas from other countries such as Azerbaijan, who already provides around the 7% of the total gas in Europe, according to the news outlet Politico.
