Parliament: Premier Denies His Meeting with Putin was Non-transparent

Bratislava, January 10 (TASR) - Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) at an opposition-initiated meeting of the parliamentary European affairs committee on Friday denied that his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was non-transparent, claiming that it was chiefly about gas supplies. "The second issue was peace initiatives. I asked the president for a truce, whether it was possible to talk about it at least during the holidays," said Fico. They also spoke about the possibility of organising a peace summit in Slovakia. The premier rejected claims that his trip to Moscow was non-transparent. "It was transparent, open, and everyone who should have known about it knew about it," he said. Fico informed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about the meeting and also spoke to European Council President Antonio Costa about it by phone. At the same time he declared that Slovakia's foreign-political orientation isn't changing. Fico paid a visit to Moscow in December and met Russian President Vladimir Putin, which drew criticism from the opposition. ko/df