Slovak Leader Visits Putin, Breaking With E.U.’s Policy of Isolation

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s surprise visit to Moscow on Sunday, reportedly to discuss natural gas and Ukraine, was a blow to European unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Europe’s efforts to keep a united front against Russia over the war in Ukraine suffered a new blow with a surprise visit to Moscow by Robert Fico, the leader of Slovakia, for talks with President Vladimir V. Putin on natural gas supplies and the conflict in Ukraine.

Following in the footsteps of Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who visited Moscow in July, Mr. Fico broke with the European Union’s policy of isolating Mr. Putin by meeting with the Russian president late Sunday in Russia’s capital.

In a briefing to reporters Monday in Moscow, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, praised Mr. Fico for his independence.

“Like Orban, Robert Fico has proved himself an independent, thoughtful politician who prioritizes the interests of his country,” Mr. Ushakov said.

The two leaders, he added, had agreed on “the importance and even necessity of restoring traditionally mutually beneficial ties between the two countries.”

Mr. Fico, a fixture of Slovak politics for decades who started out on the left and later drifted steadily to the populist right, returned to power for a third stint as prime minister after eking out a narrow win in a 2023 election. He quickly reversed the previous centrist government’s strong support for Ukraine and its hostility toward Russia.

Like Mr. Orban, Mr. Fico has denounced European Union sanctions on Russia and the bloc’s military aid to Ukraine, though he has allowed Slovak weapons manufacturers to keep selling to Kyiv.

Severely wounded in an assassination attempt in May, he returned to work over the summer, more determined than ever to defy mainstream European opinion on the war in Ukraine and other issues. The opposition in Slovakia on Monday denounced the prime minister’s Moscow trip as a “disgrace.”

In a statement posted on Facebook, Mr. Fico said he had on Friday informed European Union officials about his Russia trip. He described the visit as a response to what he said were threats by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to cut off supplies of Russian gas through a pipeline between Ukraine and Slovakia.

Mr. Putin, he said, promised him that Russia would keep supplying gas to Slovakia and Europe in general, despite that being “practically impossible after Jan. 1, 2025, given the stance of Ukrainian president.”

President Zelensky said last week that Ukraine could consider extending a deal allowing the transit of Russian gas through the pipeline, but only on condition that Moscow did not receive payment until after the war. Mr. Putin promptly shot down that idea.

The pipeline connecting Ukraine and eastern Slovakia, first built during the Soviet era to export Soviet gas to Europe, carries the bulk of Russian natural gas still consumed by Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Balkan nations that are not members of the European Union, including Serbia.

The European Union has sharply reduced its dependency on Russian gas since Mr. Putin started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But it has failed to entirely wean itself off Russian supplies as Ukraine and its more ardent European supporters would like to see happen.

While in Russia, Mr. Fico reaffirmed a previous pledge to accept an invitation from Mr. Putin to attend Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on May 9, marking the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. European Union leaders, who used to regularly take part in the celebrations, have all boycotted them since 2022.

Alina Lobzina contributed reporting from London.