Bratislava – Stopping the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine will have drastic effects on everyone in the European Union, but not on Russia, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said in his New Year’s speech. Today, Ukraine ended the transit of raw materials from Russia to the EU and to Moldova, because the five-year contract between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz expired.
“Stopping transit will have drastic effects on all of us in the European Union, but not on the Russian Federation,” Fico says.
The Slovak prime minister has repeatedly warned that due to the termination of transit, Slovakia will lose hundreds of millions of euros in transit fees and that Kyiv’s move will mean higher prices for importing gas from elsewhere than from Russia. According to Fico, the prices of gas and electricity in Europe will also rise.
Kyiv has been announcing for a long time that it does not intend to extend the agreement on the transit of Russian oil. He justifies his decision by the armed conflict with Russia, which partly finances its war campaign against Ukraine by selling raw materials.
Fico also said in his speech that he intends to continue with a foreign policy oriented towards all four sides of the world. According to him, it is “a policy based on compliance with international law and non-interference in the internal affairs of others”. “Peace belongs to the top of the pyramid of our interests,” he added.
Fico’s government is one of the few in the European Union to maintain contacts with the Russian leadership despite the fact that Moscow has been waging war against Ukraine for almost three years. In the attacked country, civilians die practically every day and enormous material damage occurs.
Fico ended his speech with New Year’s wishes in Swedish, Spanish, English and Russian.
Ukraine Russia Slovakia EU gas diplomacy Fico New Year
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
