MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not raise the issue of sanctions at his meeting on Tuesday with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said answering a relevant question from journalists.
"The issue of European sanctions against Russia is not raised by the president during his numerous foreign contacts," Peskov said, adding that "this is not an issue on our agenda."
He underscored that Russia has never been a supporter of the sanctions policy.
"Moscow is firmly convinced that this practice is absurd, ineffective and is a double-edged weapon," Peskov said.
He said Russia never initiated imposition of sanctions and will not initiate their cancelation.
While in Moscow, Fico will also have talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and will be received by President Vladimir Putin. Apart from that, he will meet with Speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Sergey Naryshkin and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov.
Slovak PM calls for cancelation of anti-Russian sanctions
Robert Fico has called for cancelation of the European Union’s anti-Russian sanctions.
"The sanctions have not produced the expected effect. They have harmed both Europe and Russia. I don’t know who may be happy with that reciprocal damage," Fico said on the eve of his official visit to Russia, due Tuesday, in an exclusive interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman.
He said sanctions cannot be the content of politics. "They may only be the tool or one of the tools in the resolution of emerging complex situations," the premier underscored.
Second, he said, historical experience testifies to inefficiency of that mechanism of pressure.
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Slovak PM hopes his visit to Moscow will give fresh impetus to Russia-Slovakia relations]
The Slovak official said he sees his official visit to Russia as an opportunity to give a fresh impetus to the development of relations between the two countries.
"Relations between our countries are developing positively," he said in the interview. "But our trade has dropped by 20% There are several reasons for that and we can put up with neither of them. I am confident that my visit to Moscow is to serve as an impetus for the development of Slovak-Russian relations, especially in the economic sector."
He said the most promising area of cooperation between his country and Russia was the energy sector. "Currently, Slovakia is completing the construction of the third and fourth units of the Mochovce Nuclear Power Plant. Construction proceeds in close cooperation with the Russian company Rosatom," Fico said.
Another most important area of cooperation, according to the Slovak prime minister, is supplies of fuels. "We commend the signing of the agreement on oil supplies to Slovakia. I would like to stress that our country is also interested in supplies of gas. We think it is quite possible to draft a project to hook Slovakia up to the Russian-Turkish gas pipeline project. So, it would be possible to supply gas to Slovakia via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary," he said.