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Slovak PM calls for dialogue between West and Russia

According to Fico, a direct dialogue with the Russian leadership will promote the soonest settlement of the conflict in Ukraine

BRATISLAVA, February 15. /TASS/. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has spoken in favor of dialogue between the West and Russia.

"We must engage in dialogue with Russia. We must engage in dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin," he said at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as quoted by the TA-3 television channel.

According to Fico, a direct dialogue with the Russian leadership will promote the soonest settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. The crisis could have been ended three months after its outbreak but "some Western politicians" hampered this, he recalled.

He slammed the European Union’s decision to issue a 90-billion-euro loan to Ukraine, with 60 billion of this sum to be spent to purchase weapons. Sanctions, in his words, will not be able to stop the advance of Russian forces. He also said that the European Union is now in a profound crisis.

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