Aleksandar Vucic claims Slovakia’s PM Fico is set to visit Russia as Belgrade braces for gas supply challenges
Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on Monday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed. The reported meeting comes as Belgrade is preparing for the US sanctions against the country’s main oil and gas company, Naftne Industrije Srbije (NIS).
“As I learned unofficially, and when I say unofficially, as I said about the sanctions against NIS, it is absolutely certain, on Monday Robert Fico will go to Putin, as the leader of a European Union country,” Vucic said during an interview with Serbian Happy TV on Friday, as quoted by Euronews Serbia.
President Vucic stated that starting January 1, 2025, gas supplies from Russia through Ukraine will stop. This decision will greatly affect European energy security and Serbia’s preparedness for winter demands. He stated that Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal had signed the relevant order on Friday. Additionally, Vucic previously mentioned that US sanctions against NIS could also come into effect on January 1, 2025.
The expiration of a transit agreement between Moscow and Kiev, which facilitates the flow of Russian gas to the EU, has raised concerns among countries like Slovakia that rely on this route for their supplies.
As Fico warned on Friday, Slovakia is considering retaliation against Ukraine over its refusal to continue the transit of Russian gas to the EU nation.
Relations between the two nations cannot be a one-way street, Fico asserted during the same speech, adding: “I cannot completely rule out reciprocal measures.” His government will consider its options over the next week, he said. Vucic added in his interview that a possible Putin-Fico meeting “will provoke a reaction from other European leaders from the EU, and you can see how complicated things are.”
