MEPs for PS Call on Premier to Cancel Planned Visit to Moscow

Bratislava, April 16 (TASR) - MEPs for the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party have sent an open letter to Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD), calling on him to scrap his planned visit to Moscow on the occasion of the Victory Day celebrations in May, Tereza Mikacova of the PS media department informed TASR on Wednesday. The MEPs stressed that Russia is waging war against Ukraine and is continuing what it began in 2014 with the occupation of some parts of Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula. "Celebrating peace with those who knowingly destroy it is a slap in the face of the victims and a betrayal of the values ​​on which Europe and democracy stand. Aren't you the one who publicly calls for peace? Why then do you want to celebrate alongside Putin, who started this war?" wrote the MEPs. They noted that the Russian attack on the city of Sumy on Palm Sunday killed 34 people, injuring 100 others, but the Slovak premier hasn't condemned it. Mikacova added that EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas on Monday (April 14) warned EU leaders against visiting the Russian capital on the occasion of the Victory Day celebrations in May. She called on European leaders to distance themselves from the propaganda celebrations of a regime that is waging war in Europe. "Premier Fico responded to this call with a personal attack on Kallas and accusations of blackmail," said Mikacova. According to the MEPs, Fico has thus clearly shown that he understood who the target of the call was. Fico reacted to Kallas's call on a social network on Tuesday (April 15). "No one can tell me where I should or shouldn't travel. I'll go to Moscow to pay my respects to the thousands of Red Army soldiers who were killed during the liberation of Slovakia, as well as to millions of other victims of the Nazi rampage. Just as I paid tribute to the victims of the Normandy landings and the Pacific landings, and as I'll pay my respects to the RAF pilots," he wrote. ko/df