Which Gas: Vice Speaker of Slovak Parliament to Visit Moscow in November

Deputy Chairman of the Slovak Parliament Andrei Danko will visit Moscow. This was announced by the politician to Izvestia. He specified that he will come to the Russian capital in November at the invitation of the chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin. One of the goals of the visit will be to discuss the prospects for Russian gas supplies in 2025. Kiev has previously said that it will not prolong the transit agreement with Russia. The expert community notes that Slovakia may suffer more than any other EU country from Ukraine's possible actions.

Slovak deputy speaker visits Russia

The head of the Slovak National Party, which is part of the ruling coalition, Andrei Danko intends to visit Moscow before the end of the year. According to the politician, this may happen in November. One of the topics he intends to discuss with his colleagues from the Russian State Duma should be the prospect of stopping the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine.

- I want to go to Moscow and discuss this problem. I have an official invitation from [Duma Speaker Vyacheslav] Volodin - he is a great friend of mine. I have always said that I want good relations with the Russian Federation. I think I will be in Moscow in November," he told Izvestia.

The politician noted that the ruling coalition takes the possible cessation of gas supplies to the republic seriously. On October 7, the second joint meeting of the governments of Slovakia and Ukraine will be held in Uzhgorod. The cabinets have already met in a similar format in April. At that time, Andriy Danko expressed hope that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo would be able to warn his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal about retaliatory measures in case of a transit interruption.

In August, the Ukrainian president's office said that Kiev will stop transit of Russian gas through its territory from January 2025. On December 31, the relevant contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz expires.

At the same time, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian president's office, Mykhailo Podolyak, noted that Ukraine was ready to transport fuel from other countries to Europe. According to Reuters, Ukraine could allegedly pump gas from Azerbaijan to the EU as a transitional measure after the transit contract from Russia expires. However, the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry immediately denied this information, while Kiev pointed out that currently there is neither a signed gas transit agreement between Ukraine and Azerbaijan nor any relevant negotiations.

At the same time, Gazprom emphasized that it was ready to send gas to Europe via Ukraine even after 2024.

- This depends primarily on Ukraine. Transit through its territory, they have their own rules. It depends on their desire. We are ready to supply, it is not a question of us," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak emphasized.

Russia remains an important trade partner for Slovakia. Under EU sanctions, Bratislava is trying to maintain imports of hydrocarbons - oil and gas, as well as fuel elements for nuclear power plants. Now two nuclear power plants are operating in the republic: Mochovce (located 130 kilometers east of Bratislava) and Bogunice (near the village of Jaslovské Bogunice in the western part of the country). Both stations were built with the participation of Moscow. Overall, Russian exports totaled almost €2 billion in the first six months of 2024.

Peter Marchek, a former member of the Slovak parliament, emphasizes that Slovakia has long been dependent on Russian gas and oil. At the same time, EU sanctions are causing serious damage to Slovak business.

- EU sanctions and efforts to reduce this dependence have led to an increase in energy prices, affecting both industry and households. "They deprive our companies of competitiveness, and Western countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands are profiting from this situation," he told Izvestia. - This policy weakens and impoverishes the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

In addition to Slovakia, Hungary and Austria, among others, receive pipeline gas through Ukraine. Igor Yushkov, an expert of the Financial University and the National Energy Security Fund, notes that Slovakia will remain in the most difficult position if Kiev stops supplying gas through its territory.

- Unlike Hungary, the Turkish Stream gas pipeline does not reach Slovakia. As for Austria, it could receive liquefied gas from Croatia or Italy and further pump it through the pipeline. But Slovakia, it turns out, will have to get gas from the north. It will need someone on the northern coast to receive LNG, such as the Netherlands, and then someone to pump it to Slovakia, in particular Germany and the Czech Republic. If supplies from the east - Ukraine - stop, Slovakia has no other options," he explained to Izvestia.

By the way, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that Budapest does not care at all whether the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine will stop next year, as there is the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. He said this after the meeting of the 15th Russian-Hungarian intergovernmental commission on economic issues, which was held in Budapest on 20 September.

Relations between Russia and Slovakia

In recent years, Western politicians have effectively frozen dialog with Russia and have practically stopped paying visits to the Russian Federation. The only European leader who visited Moscow immediately after the start of the CFE (in April 2022) was Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. Now the political dialog between Russia and Austria has been reduced to zero.

Against this background, Hungary and Slovakia remain the only European countries whose ruling elites openly declare their interest in maintaining political dialog with the Russian Federation at the highest level. After the coalition led by Smer leader Robert Fitzo came to power in 2023, Bratislava set a course for the gradual restoration of contacts with Russia. Thus, in January this year, the country resumed cooperation with Russia in the field of culture: the authorities lifted the ban imposed by the previous government in 2022.

Slovakia was also one of the countries that sent its ambassador to the inauguration of Vladimir Putin. In March, Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Following the talks, the Russian Federation declared its readiness to restore inter-parliamentary relations with Slovakia.

By the way, the deputy speaker of the parliament Andrei Danko in July reported plans to achieve the restoration of the parliamentary friendship group of Russia and Slovakia. "The Slovak National Party will not vote [for the creation of other groups] if there is no [friendship] group with the Russian Federation," he noted in a conversation with Izvestia.

Recall, the Slovak side suspended the friendship group with Russia and Belarus in 2022, but Bratislava took such a step under the previous prime minister - from April 2021 to May 2023 he was Eduard Heger. After his resignation, he was replaced by Ludovit Odor for several months.

In addition, Robert Fitzo was the only European leader who supported the "peace mission" of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In July, the Hungarian politician held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The parties discussed the prospects for resolving the Ukrainian conflict. Fitzo noted that "peace initiatives are never enough, because although peace is not everything, but without peace everything is nothing". Slovakia is ready to become a platform for negotiations on Ukraine.

Russia, for its part, welcomes the desire of the Slovak and Hungarian leaders to find a solution to the Ukrainian conflict and maintain a dialog with the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Fitzo and Orban defend the national interests of their states.

- Fitzo has appeared now after the elections, well Viktor Orban in Hungary, I have already said many times, they are not pro-Russian politicians, they are pro-national, they protect their interests. But there are no more of them, they just don't exist, I don't know what it is connected with, it is connected with a big dependence on the "big brother" - on the States," he said.

It should be noted that in Slovakia also do not hide skepticism about the effectiveness of the EU anti-Russian sanctions. For example, the country's president, Peter Pellegrini, believes that sanctions against Russia have been ineffective in most cases and have had a negative impact on Slovakia itself. He did not reject the EU's unified approach to Russia regarding the situation in Ukraine, but noted the need to take into account the impact of the restrictions on the EU economy. In Pellegrini's opinion, Slovakia should take into account its own national interests when forming a position on this issue.