Big Gestures, Small Actions: Paradoxes of Slovakia’s Policy towards Russia
Big Gestures, Small Actions: Paradoxes of Slovakia’s Policy towards Russia

Author(s): Dariusz Kałan, Ágnes Vass
Subject(s): Governance, International relations/trade, Geopolitics, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: Russian Federation; Slovakia; Slovak support to Russia; conflict with eastern Ukraine; Slovak European policy; foreign policy;
Summary/Abstract: Robert Fico’s presence in Moscow during the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War is another example of the support given to Russia by Slovakia during the deepening conflict in eastern Ukraine. However, this type of gesture from Bratislava, although risky from the point of view of its European policy, does not always coincide with its political aims, which, especially in the energy sector, are rather associated with a reduction of dependence on Russia. Slovakia should use the Ukrainian crisis to accelerate diversification and possibly also to modify its foreign policy model of balancing between Moscow and Brussels.

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