Slovak PM Fico to visit Moscow for Victory Day

Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico has announced he will make another visit to Moscow, where he will attend the commemorations of the end of World War II anniversary on May 9.

Fico also announced he is to commemorate the end of WWII at the Slavín Red army commemorative shrine in Bratislava on April 8, as well as at the site of the former German concentration camp Dachau and in Normandy in June.

“These are good opportunities to develop ideas about how to strengthen protection of peace in these difficult war times,” Fico announced on his Facebook social media profile.

Slovak strongman Fico was the only EU leader to attend the Moscow parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII last year, and he also made an unprecedented appearance on a Russian propaganda channel, Rossiya 1. Fico also travelled to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2024.

Fico used the latest announcement to criticise Ukraine for “intentional harmful steps” and US and Israel for their "nonsensical war against Iran”, which benefits Russia, and he also praised his government for navigating the country through the current energy crisis.

“The Slovak government in collaboration with [Hungarian MOL owned] refinery Slovnaft is doing the maximum for Slovakia to remain among the half of all EU countries with lowest fuel prices despite the price increase,” he said. 

He added that “together with Hungary and other countries we fight for putting [the Russian] Druzhba pipeline back into operation, and we open eyes of the European Commission which literally breaks world records in incompetence and ideological blindness.”

Slovakia, together with Hungary, has been coping with the halt of Russian oil imports via the eastern Druzhba since the end of January, which Kyiv has blamed on Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

The Slovak and Hungarian prime ministers, Fico and Viktor Orbán, have accused Ukraine of dragging out efforts to put the pipeline back into operation, and cast doubt over who was responsible for the damage.

In February, Fico’s cabinet declared an oil emergency and the country’s key refinery, Slovnaft, which remains dependent on Russian oil, cut fuel exports to Ukraine to keep its products for the domestic market.

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