Fico called on the West to engage in direct dialogue with Russia

Western countries need to restore dialogue with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. This was announced by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on February 15.

"We (the states of the European Union (EU). We must have a dialogue with the Russian Federation, we must have a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin," he said at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Bratislava.

The Slovak Prime minister clarified that if contact is not established, EU leaders will not be able to talk about their interest in ending the conflict in Ukraine.

Fico stressed that when he meets with his colleagues from the association at informal events, he hears them quietly discussing their indirect interaction with the Russian leader. Based on this, he urged not to ask questions like "What did President Putin tell you?" but to openly engage in dialogue with Moscow.

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On February 10, French President Emmanuel Macron invited several European leaders to resume dialogue with Russia, and later clarified that this communication channel should be transparent for Ukraine when it was created.

On February 10, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the existence of Russia's contacts with France at the technical level and stressed that the Russian side had always advocated maintaining dialogue. He recalled that Moscow had previously warned about the dangers of bringing relations to a "zero state." Later, Peskov said that Macron was not trying to establish contact with Putin.

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