‘Personal Reason’: Politico publication explains why Robert Fico does not like Ukraine

The winner of the elections in Slovakia, former Prime Minister Robert Fico, has a personal reason for his unfavorable view of Ukraine. In the winter of 2009, when Fico was the Prime Minister, transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Slovakia was disrupted.

This information is reported by Politico.

The gas shutdown cost the Slovak economy approximately 100 million euros per day, as factories were forced to close. In desperation, Fico called then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to resume the gas supply.

On January 14, a Slovak delegation led by Fico landed in Kyiv for a meeting with Tymoshenko. Ukrainians made the Slovaks wait for three hours before inviting them to a meeting attended, to their surprise, by representatives of the press.

“Under the cameras, Tymoshenko scolded Fico for siding with Moscow in the gas dispute for about 20 minutes,” the publication states. “It was an extremely uncomfortable situation. Fico blushed with anger. It was a catastrophe. He felt humiliated,” said a high-ranking Slovak official familiar with the events of 2009.

Afterward, the Slovaks flew to Moscow, where they were welcomed by Putin in a solemn ceremony at the Georgievsky Hall of the Kremlin.

“After that, Fico began to take an openly anti-Ukrainian position,” said Alexander Duleba, a senior researcher at the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. “He said that we shouldn’t support Ukrainians, we’re not needed by Ukraine, they don’t engage in serious conversations with us. It’s personal.”

On January 16, the then-President of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic, also flew to Kyiv to meet with his counterpart, Viktor Yushchenko. Yushchenko promised that “Naftogaz” would resume gas transit to Slovakia, but then the head of the company declared that it was impossible.

“At that time, the Ukrainians managed to humiliate both the Prime Minister and the President of Slovakia,” stated a high-ranking official.