Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's recent visit to Russia has sparked controversy as he met with President Putin to discuss gas supplies amid Ukraine's impending cessation of Russian gas transit. Critics question Fico's alignment with Moscow and the implications for EU energy policy as tensions escalate in the region.
Fico's return to power in 2023 marked a shift in Slovakia's foreign policy, moving away from support for Ukraine and towards closer ties with Russia. The current gas transit agreement between Ukraine and Russia is set to expire on January 1, 2025, raising concerns about energy security in Europe.
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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, previously holding the position from 1999 until 2008.
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Robert Fico is a Slovak politician who served as Prime Minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He has been the first leader of the Direction – Social Democracy party since 1999.
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Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast.
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. Its members have a combined area of 4,233,255.3 km² and an estimated total population of about 447 million.
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Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres in the Carpathian Basin, it borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, a
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the southwest, and Czech Republic to the northwest.
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Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician, actor and comedian who is the 6th and current president of Ukraine, serving since May 2019.
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Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Covering an area of 17,125,200 square kilometres, it is the largest country in the world by area, spanning more than one-eighth of the Earth's in
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Viktor Mihály Orbán is a Hungarian politician who has been Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010; he was also Prime Minister from 1998 to 2002.
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.
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Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov is a Russian diplomat, translator and Turkologist. Since 2012, Peskov has been the Press Secretary for the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.