Bratislava Day: Russian and Slovak MPs agree to intensify dialog
The visit of the Slovak delegation to Russia is a good signal for the resumption of parliamentary dialog between the two countries. The Russian Embassy in Bratislava told Izvestia. A group of politicians headed by vice-speakers of the National Council of the Republic Andrei Danko and Tibor Gaspar held talks with their colleagues from the State Duma on January 13. Slovak politicians are expected to be in Russia until Wednesday. This is the first visit of the EU country's parliamentary delegation since the introduction of large-scale sanctions against Russia in February 2022. Slovak MPs intend to discuss gas transit, the situation in Ukraine and cooperation with Russia. Against this background, more and more Western politicians see the need for dialog with Russia.
Why did the Slovak delegation arrive in Moscow?
On January 12, a Slovak delegation headed by deputy speakers of the National Council (parliament) of the republic Andrei Danko and Tibor Gašpar arrived in Moscow. It also included MPs Marian Carey, Jan Majgut, Richard Glyk and Adam Luchansky. The Slovak MPs encountered obstacles on their way: Andrei Danko said that Poland did not allow the delegation's plane to fly through its airspace, so the MPs had to fly through the Czech Republic and Germany. Warsaw, however, denied the accusations.
On Monday, the politicians held a meeting with State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. They discussed issues of intensifying Russian-Slovak cooperation at the interparliamentary level. According to Volodin, the conversation was very informative. In his opinion, this meeting is especially important against the background of recent talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo. "A number of very important decisions were made," he said, adding that now it is necessary to legislate them on the part of parliamentarians. Also on that day, Andrei Danko met with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.
Earlier, Slovak news agency TASR reported that during the visit, which will last until January 15, representatives of Bratislava intend to discuss the continuation of Russian gas supplies to Slovakia and the prospects for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine. The arrival of Slovak MPs means the resumption of inter-parliamentary cooperation interrupted by the country's previous government in 2022, the Russian Embassy in Bratislava told Izvestia.
- The visit of a delegation led by Slovak parliamentary deputy speakers Andrei Danko and Tibor Gaspar to Moscow is a good signal for the resumption of parliamentary dialog between our countries," diplomats said. - The sanctions adopted by the European Union against Russian parliamentarians, which the Slovak Republic as an EU member state supported, significantly limit the potential for our parliamentary cooperation. However, such initiatives are undoubtedly useful and important for maintaining inter-parliamentary dialog, which was terminated in 2022 on the initiative of the previous Slovak government. Such visits can make a positive contribution to strengthening relations and mutual understanding between the peoples of our countries.
Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, right, and Deputy Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Andrej Danko during a meeting in Moscow, January 13, 2025.
On Tuesday, January 14, Andrei Danko is expected to meet with the head of the Council of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko. In addition, he may hold talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Interparliamentary cooperation between Bratislava and Moscow has a long history. In 2019, then-President of the Slovak National Council Andrej Danko took part as a guest of honor in the Victory Parade in Moscow. After the West imposed large-scale sanctions on Russia in February 2022, the interaction between the parliaments of the two states was temporarily suspended, but in March 2024, at the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, Sergey Lavrov and his Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanar agreed to restore inter-parliamentary ties, as well as cooperation in the cultural, humanitarian and military-memorial spheres. And in December 2024, the foreign ministers of Russia and Slovakia met at the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers in Malta, where Juraj Blanar said that Bratislava intends to retain the transit of gas and oil from Russia.
This issue was further raised by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo when he visited Moscow in December and held talks with Vladimir Putin. The main topic of the visit was the situation with the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. According to Fitzo, Putin confirmed Russia's readiness to continue supplies to Slovakia. However, the Ukrainian authorities refused to extend the transit contract and stopped transporting Russian gas to the EU on January 1.
Robert Fitzo warned that the cessation of transit in 2025-2026 alone would cost the EU €120 billion, but did not wait for the necessary reaction from Brussels. In response to Kiev's actions, the Slovak prime minister said he was ready to block EU aid to Ukraine, as well as to stop providing humanitarian support, change the procedure for paying benefits to Ukrainian refugees in the country or cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine.
Fitzo has so far failed to influence Kiev: representatives of Ukraine did not attend the meeting of the Slovak prime minister with European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen, which took place on January 9, and were not included in the working group on gas transit. The introduction of tough measures by Bratislava against Ukraine will depend on whether Slovakia can find alternative gas supply routes, Vadim Trukhachev, an associate professor at the Department of Foreign Regional Studies and Foreign Policy at the Russian State University of State University, told Izvestia.
- "Fitzo is pushed by the fact that Slovakia is still poorly connected to the Turkish Stream and has weak opportunities to find alternative sources of gas connection," he said.
The expert considers the possibility to stop supplying electricity to Ukraine as a lever of pressure in Bratislava's hands. However, radical steps on the part of Slovakia may entail sanctions from Brussels. For example, in September 2024 it became known that the European Commission is considering freezing €12.8 billion allocated to Bratislava from EU funds. At the same time, Robert Fitzo's decision to abolish the special prosecutor's office that dealt with corruption cases was named as the official reason.
The West sees the need for contacts with Russia
The visit of the Slovak delegation only confirms the trend in the West to restore dialog with Russia. In April 2022, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Moscow and held talks with Vladimir Putin. The meeting took place in a closed one-on-one format, without advisors or interpreters, and there was also no final statement to the press. The politicians discussed the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine and gas supplies to the EU. After that, the EU leaders did not come to Russia for two years.
The next visit of an EU head of government to Moscow took place in July 2024, when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited the Russian capital. He arrived in Moscow as part of his "peacekeeping mission," which was launched after Budapest took over the presidency of the EU Council. Orban also held meetings with Vladimir Zelensky, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump, who won the US election.
AFU soldier
In December 2024, the head of the Hungarian government had a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin, during which he proposed a Christmas truce and a prisoner exchange. While the Russian side supported Viktor Orban's peace initiatives, Kiev refused to talk to the Hungarian Prime Minister. The country's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called it "a gesture absolutely unprecedented in diplomacy."
Not only Eastern European states have intensified their contacts with Russia. On November 15, Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had their first telephone conversation in almost two years. The Russian president said that Moscow had never refused and remained open to resuming the talks, which Kiev had suspended. The two leaders also agreed that their aides would be in touch following the conversation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
In the US, the incoming Trump administration also says it is ready for dialog with Russia. The phone conversation between the two presidents will take place "in the coming days or weeks," future US national security adviser Mike Waltz told ABC. It will be followed by a face-to-face meeting, preparations for which are already underway, according to Trump's transition team.
The desire for dialog with Russia is caused, among other things, by objective economic reasons. This is, for example, the need for reliable supplies of gas and other raw materials. At the same time, there is no political unity within the Western bloc of states, said Vladimir Shapovalov, a political scientist and deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics at the Moscow State University. According to him, more and more European politicians are starting to turn towards Russia and advocate normalization of relations with Moscow.
