Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Slovakia to impose an energy blockade on Ukraine.
“Shut down their reverse-flow gas shipments, cut off electricity supplies — and they will immediately understand there are limits to their behavior when it comes to violating others’ interests,” Putin said during talks with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Tuesday, September 2, in Beijing, after criticizing Ukrainian drone strikes on the Druzhba oil pipeline
Fico, who was the only European leader to travel to China for the country’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the “victory over militarist Japan during World War II,” also condemned Kyiv’s actions and pledged to raise pipeline security in a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky on September 5.
During the meeting, Putin thanked Fico for Slovakia’s “independent foreign policy.” Fico, in turn, compared the European Union to “a frog sitting at the bottom of a well” that cannot see what is happening in the world.
“Although I deeply respect the European Union, it is unable to respond to the movement in the world,” the Slovak prime minister said, adding that his country is highly interested in energy cooperation with Russia and in oil and gas supplies from the Russian Federation.
Fico also promised Putin that Bratislava will vote against the European Commission’s REPowerEU plan, which calls for a complete halt to imports of fossil fuels from Russia by 2027.
In his conversation with Robert Fico, the Russian president also raised the issue of security guarantees for Kyiv in the event the war in Ukraine ends.
“This was the subject of our (with U.S. President Donald Trump) discussion in Anchorage. And it seems to me there’s room to find a consensus,” he said without elaborating.
According to Putin, Moscow has never objected to Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, but he called the country’s membership in NATO “unacceptable.”
