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The Czech government’s decision to wean itself off from Russian energy ensured that “we don’t have to grovel before a mass murderer,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on Dec. 22, referring to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s visit to Moscow.”It was the Czech government that secured independence from Russian energy supplies so that we don’t have to grovel before a mass murderer,” Lipavsky said on X.Fico held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Dec. 22, marking the third visit to Russia by an EU country leader since the start of the full-scale war in 2022. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met Putin in April 2022, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Moscow for talks with the Kremlin’s chief in July 2024. The Slovak prime minister visited Russia’s capital after Kyiv said it would not extend the deal that facilitated the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to European countries like Slovakia past Dec. 31.Both Fico and Orban have consistently criticized Western support for Kyiv and made statements that echoed pro-Russian talking points, while Hungary and Slovakia are ranked among the top European buyers of Russian fossil fuels.The visit comes as another hit to efforts by Ukraine and the West to isolate Putin on the international scene after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a call with the Russian leader in November, urging him to call off his invasion.Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda also condemned Fico’s visit to the Kremlin.”How cheap is your love? There are those who come to Russia with love and feel gassed to meet a war criminal,” Nauseda wrote.”This is not Lithuania’s way. We choose energy independence and real market prices — with no political strings attached.”Branislav Grohling, head of the Slovak opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), denounced Fico’s visit as shameful and said that the Slovak prime minister “does not speak for the whole nation.””To discuss anything with Putin, whose hands are covered in blood, is a betrayal not only of our country and its foreign policy orientation but also a betrayal of our EU and NATO partners,” Grohling said on Facebook.Michal Simecka, another opposition leader and head of the Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, said Fico should have held talks with Ukraine instead of “making Slovakia into Putin’s propaganda tool.” Putin, Slovak PM discuss gas transit, standardizing ‘mutual relations,’ Fico says after Kremlin meeting“In a long conversation … Putin and I exchanged views on the military situation in Ukraine, the possibilities of an early peaceful end to the war, and on mutual relations between the Slovak Republic and the Russian Federation, which I intend to standardize.”
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