RT reported that on January 14, a Slovak delegation led by Deputy Speaker of the National Council Andrej Danko and Tibor Gaspar arrived in Moscow to discuss trade and gas supplies after Ukraine decided to stop transiting Russian gas through its territory.
Kiev has announced that it will terminate its gas transit contract with Russian energy giant Gazprom at the end of 2024. This decision puts countries such as Austria, Italy and Slovakia - which depend on Russian gas through pipelines - at risk of serious energy shortages.
Mr. Tibor Gaspar said that Ukraine's move not only caused damage to Slovakia but also seriously affected other EU countries, while Kiev itself would also lose about 1 billion euros in transit fees.
“This is a purely political decision. It does not harm Russia, but only hurts the economies of EU member states,” Mr. Gaspar affirmed.
Slovakia has reacted strongly. Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned that he will veto EU-wide initiatives to support Ukraine and take his own measures against Kiev. He also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Slovakia for talks, but received only “insulting” words in return, according to Gaspar.
Meanwhile, Mr. Andrej Danko said that Mr. Zelensky was following instructions from the West. “The West does not care whether Slovakia has gas or not,” Mr. Danko criticized, emphasizing that Slovakia is trapped in conflicting interests within the EU.
Gas prices in the EU are now four times higher than in the US, and Mr Gaspar called this “an extraordinary situation”. Meanwhile, Mr Danko said that Slovakia’s current situation of having to buy expensive energy only benefits big countries like Germany and France, as Slovakia has to borrow money from German banks to maintain its economy.
“We are buying energy at expensive prices, but this cannot last forever,” Mr. Danko warned.
According to both Slovak officials, the EU's "pointless" sanctions against Russia are actually hurting member states. They warned that if this situation continues, smaller EU countries will face an energy crisis and a severe economic recession.
