Russia wants to update Slovakia’s nuclear infrastructure as Moscow looks to increase its involvement in European energy projects beyond oil and gas, DPA news agency reported on Saturday, May 4.

“We don’t only supply fuel, but are ready to participate in the modernization of nuclear energy facilities,” Putin told Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico during a meeting Monday at Putin’s suburban Moscow residence, Interfax reported.

By far Europe’s biggest supplier of oil and natural gas, Russia has actively tried in the last year to gain a foothold in European electricity generation and in the growing nuclear energy sector.

Atomstroiexport, the state-owned company that builds nuclear plants abroad, has projects in Iran, China and Bulgaria and has ambitious plans to grow its business in Europe and Africa.

Putin said Slovakia, which receives about 100 per cent of its natural gas and 98 per cent of oil from Russia, was an important transit country for Moscow’s energy resources and called for increased cooperation in energy transit.

Fico, a member of the left-wing Direction - Social Democracy party, said Slovak socio-economic conditions were dependent on the price of gas and that he hoped Slovakian gas company SPP would sign a “good” new contract with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.

“Energy will be the area where our cooperation will be the most intense,” Fico told the Russian president.

In a separate meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, the Russian premier said a 49-per-cent stake in Slovak oil pipeline operator Transpetrol that belongs to bankrupt Russian oil company Yukos would be sold “in the interests of both countries.”

After Russia cut natural gas or oil supplies to Ukraine and Belarus amid political disputes in the last 16 months, many European nations, which also suffered from the supply crunches, called for decreased energy dependence on the Kremlin.

Fico, however, restated his position Friday that Russia is a “dependable and promising partner for supplying gas.”

The two leaders also touched on possible cooperation in the high- tech and transport industries, with Putin adding that “very large pan-European projects could be realized,” without elaborating.

During the meeting with Fradkov, however, a memorandum of cooperation was signed regarding the construction of a railroad line between Kosice, in eastern Slovakia, and Bratislava.

A Russian-Slovak business council was also created during the visit to oversee trade that reached 7 billion dollars last year.

The Russian side will be headed by Sergei Shmatko, head of foreign construction for Atomstroiexport, the Russian state nuclear power company, while Ludovit Cernak, a former economics minister, is to represent Bratislava.

Fico also discussed Russian-European issues with Putin, as well as with Fradkov and Igor Ivanov, head of Russia’s Security Council, in separate meetings, Russian news agencies said.

Tensions between Moscow and the West are increasing in the run-up to a May 17-18 Russia-EU summit in the Russian Volga River city of Samara, with the blockade of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow by pro- Kremlin youth groups earlier this week straining relations.

Fico, however, said there were not any “sensitive or open, unsolved difficult topics” between Moscow and Bratislava.

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