This delegation is headed by the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Andrejs Danko, who is the leader of the nationalist and pro-Russian Slovak National Party (SNS), which is part of the ruling coalition. Deputies from the “Course – social democracy” (“Smer-SD”) party led by pro-Kremlin Prime Minister Roberta Fico are also participating in the visit.
According to Danko, Poland did not allow the delegation’s plane to use its airspace, so it had to fly over the Czech Republic and Germany.
On the other hand, the representative of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commenting on what Danko said, said that the documents received from Slovakia when requesting permission were incomplete, but when Poland asked to supplement them, a decision was made in Slovakia to change the route, reports Polish Public Radio.
The visit to Moscow will last until Wednesday, and its program is that the deputies will discuss the possibilities of supplying Russian gas to Slovakia after Ukraine’s decision to stop the transit of Russian gas to Central Europe via the Druzhba pipeline, as well as discuss the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, Slovak MPs are scheduled to meet with the chairman of the State Duma of the lower house of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, and on Tuesday – with the speaker of the Federation Council of the upper house of the parliament, Valentina Matvijenko.
The MPs’ trip follows Fico’s visit to Moscow in December, when he met dictator Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin to discuss gas supplies.
Slovakia was one of the last EU countries to receive Russian gas through the pipeline through Ukraine. However, the transit agreement expired on December 31, and Kyiv made a principled decision not to extend it.