Slovak PM Fico holds urgent talks with state oil company after hinting that Moscow is in energy talks with US

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico summoned an urgent meeting with state oil transportation company Transpetrol shortly after his return from Moscow and following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fico declined to give details on the urgent meeting with Transpetrol but hinted at US interest in energy deals with Russia.

“Yesterday we spoke about imports of gas and oil to Slovakia. I have to deliver this information very urgently to the representative of Transpetrol, because steps which could be helpful to Slovakia are taking shape,” Fico was quoted as saying by online news outlet Aktuality.sk and other media on May 10.

Fico apologised for not taking part in the end of World War II Slovak state celebrations, which were moved from May 8 to May 10, because of Fico's latest trip to Moscow, where he was the only EU leader to attend the Russia’s modest Victory Day parade, scaled down by the Russian authorities amid fears of Ukrainian drone attacks.

When responding to Aktuality.sk queries about Slovakia’s exposure to Russian energy imports, singled out in the recent Fitch rating agency report, Fico said “we were at a meeting yesterday [in Moscow] where it was clearly told to us that Americans have a great interest in buying all the transit infrastructure”.

“It will be great fun, really. Russians will be delivering gas and oil to Americans for standard prices and Americans will be selling it to us with American high altitude margins,” Fico added.   

Fico, who has also maintained close ties with the US administration of Donald Trump, was slammed by domestic opposition for his trip to Moscow, and for prolonging Slovak dependence on Russian energy.

Opposition legislator Štefan Kišš of centrist Progressive Slovakia (PS) also criticised Fico for harming the country’s energy security. “Critical infrastructure should be ours, Slovak. We should not be selling either to Americans, or to Russians,” Kišš stated in response to Fico’s comments.

“Transpetrol is responsible for transportation of oil. The only thing he [Fico] could negotiate there is potential increase of fees for the transit of Russian oil for this company,” Karol Galek, legislator from the opposition neoliberal SaS party was quoted as saying by Slovak state broadcaster STVR.

While in Moscow, Fico held talks with Putin, who told Fico “it is important you are here”.

“We are aware of your interest to cooperate in certain areas including the energy sector,” Putin was quoted as saying by Slovak press agency TASR following his meeting with Fico.

“We have just had a chance to speak privately and I can say it here as well: we will do everything to satisfy the energy needs of the Slovak Republic,” Putin added.

TASR and Russian state news agency TASS reported that besides Putin, the talks with Fico were also attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s senior aide Yuriy Ushakov, head of the nuclear state agency Aleksey Likhachev and senior officials including Minister of Education and Science Valeriy Falkov.

Fico has made energy a central focus of his Smer party’s further pro-Kremlin turn. Last summer, Fico even delayed the EU's eighteenth sanctions package against Russia, and repeatedly slammed the EU’s plans to phase out Russian energy imports by 2027.

Slovakia nearly eradicated Russian gas imports during the winter of 2022-2023, but imports spiked following the return of the Fico-led government in the autumn of 2023.

Slovakia has a valid contract with Gazprom until 2034, under which the Russian side is committed to sending its gas to Slovakia for free, covering gas transit fees all the way to the Slovak border. 

Fico claimed previously Slovakia would face a lawsuit “for €16bn” if it reneged on the valid Gazprom contract and also argued that it would incur “more expensive transit fees,” saying he was acting in the “national state interest” and that “we have never been in such a situation before,” stressing that in the past Slovakia has served as a key gas transit hub.

Previously, Fico had also argued that Slovak gas transmission utility Eustream would lose income from gas transit fees. Czech energy and media oligarch Daniel Křetínský’s EPH has a 49% stake and managerial control in Eustream, while Slovakia retains 51%.

Local analysts argue that it is the lobbying influence of EPH over Fico’s cabinet in combination with Fico’s Smer party’s reliance on the anti-establishment electorate, which in Slovakia is traditionally anti-western and has a strong pro-Russian element, that pushes Fico to keep the Smer electorate mobilised by claiming that Slovakia would find itself in an energy crisis if the EU phase-out plan is implemented.

Last September former minister of economy of the non-parliamentary opposition Democrats, Karel Hirman, accused the government, the Slovak Regulatory Office URSO and Křetínský of colluding to determine gas prices for households. URSO denied this.

Slovakia has traditionally been a key gas transit hub, with operator Eustream handling tens of billions of cubic metres annually before flows declined after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These rose after Fico returned to power in late 2023.

Regular elections are scheduled for next year in Slovakia, and Smer has been trailing PS in the polls since the winter of 2024-2025.