Why did Robert Fico go to Moscow?

For weeks, Robert Fico, the Slovak prime minister, critic of military aid to Ukraine and Putin appeaser, boasted about his plans to visit Moscow. When he did visit Moscow, in an unannounced visit on December 22, the reaction was shock. Instead of preparing festive dishes, a huge number of people took to the streets in protest.

Robert Fico is now only the third EU leader to meet Vladimir Putin since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began nearly three years ago. Putin has had war crimes arrest warrants issued against him by the International Criminal Court, meaning that if he ever visited Slovakia, the authorities there would be obliged to arrest him.

Two months into the war, the Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Moscow to “confront Putin with the atrocities he witnessed in Ukraine”. In July this year, Viktor Orbán of Hungary embarked on a so-called “peace mission” to Moscow, which ultimately proved unsuccessful. Orbán and Volodymyr Zelensky have exchanged numerous sharp words since the start of the war.

“You really think there is a war in Kyiv? You cannot say that seriously,” Fico remarked almost a year ago ahead of his meeting with Denys Shmyhal, the Ukrainian prime minister. That meeting took place in the western Ukrainian town of Uzhhorod, directly on the border with eastern Slovakia. Since taking office last year, Robert Fico has never ventured further into Ukraine and has not met with Zelensky in Kyiv, unlike many other European leaders, including his predecessor as Slovak prime minister.

The news of the clandestine trip emerged mere hours before it took place, when the Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić referred to it on local television. However, Fico himself remained silent. Just hours before the meeting, he posted a video on social media showcasing his fitness routine and ironing his business shirts in a Brussels hotel. Fico was there attending a meeting of European heads, including Zelensky.

On Christmas Eve, it was still unclear whether he had returned to Slovakia and what exactly had been negotiated. The Kremlin said nothing, but Fico mentioned the supply of Russian gas to Slovakia. Ukraine refuses to let Russian gas pass through its territory.

Eventually the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the “working visit” had been planned for several days, indicating that Fico may have known he was heading for Moscow even as he met EU leaders and Zelensky in Brussels.

Following the Fico-Putin tête-à-tête, Zelensky took to X/Twitter, and confirmed reports that he had offered Fico compensation for the potential loss of gas transit fees amounting to half a billion euros. “Fico did not want compensation for the Slovaks. And he does not want to cooperate with the European Commission. For some reason, he finds Moscow more profitable. Everyone in Europe understands why. There’s no one who doesn’t,” Zelensky stated.

In Slovakia, the trip set off a political storm. Hundreds of people, waving Ukrainian, Slovak, European, and Nato flags, gathered in front of the government headquarters in Bratislava to protest the meeting.

“Robert Fico staged a spectacle. All the topics he raised in meetings with EU and Ukrainian leaders, and all the statements he made, were meant to culminate in his visit to Moscow. This alone is unacceptable to us. We need our partners in the EU, it is the world we belong to,” said Marián Kulich, one of the organizers of the rally and co-founder of the Peace for Ukraine initiative.

“We believe that Robert Fico is not acting in the interest of the Slovak Republic. The timing, just two days before Christmas, is bizarre. He counts on getting away with it because it’s Christmas. We have prepared a submission to the General Prosecutor’s Office to investigate his actions,” he adds.

“Enough of Russia” and “Shame!” were some of the chants on the streets. Signs, and posts on social media, compared the meeting to the time Slovak fascist leader Jozef Tiso met Hitler.

Rastislav Káčer, who served as minister of foreign affairs and visited Kyiv during the war on behalf of the previous government, commented: “A Russian agent at the head of the Slovak government is openly siding with the enemy. Fico long ago bet that Putin’s neo-fascist imperialism would win in Ukraine. His choice is shameful and reprehensible. It is collaboration with a foreign, hostile power.”

Now, the political opposition is calling for a vote of no confidence in the shaky government coalition, which relies on the tiniest support in parliament. This comes after weeks of negotiating a new budget that will increase taxes and worsen the cost of living crisis.

Even President Peter Pellegrini and members of his party, Hlas, the junior party in the coalition, are demanding explanations from Fico. The whole of Slovakia wants answers for a trip that could prove to be historic – but for all the wrong reasons.

“This is not the first time Robert Fico has become a tool of Russian propaganda,” said the journalist Martin Hodás, who monitors disinformation in Slovakia and is editor-in-chief of Infosecurity.sk. “And given that he is already planning another trip to Moscow, it won’t be the last.”