Relations between Moscow and Bratislava, which deteriorated under the previous leadership of Slovakia, as well as energy and gas issues, became the topics of conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who visited Russia the day before. This was reported at a briefing by the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov, TASS reports.
“We managed to talk about bilateral relations, which, let’s say, suffered significantly due to the actions of the previous authorities of Slovakia,” the Kremlin representative shared. “We also talked about energy issues, about gas issues.”
“Therefore, we had a fairly detailed conversation,” the press secretary of the Russian leader concluded.
On December 22, Fico made a working visit to Russia, Putin received him in the Kremlin, and the conversation took place face to face. This is the first personal meeting between Putin and Fico since 2016 and the third visit of the European leader to Russia since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine. Earlier, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the purpose of the visit was to discuss the situation with Ukraine’s refusal to extend the transit of Russian gas.