Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico commented on the agreement between Putin and Trump on diesel fuel. He called the European Union’s policy “naive.”
“Soon, in the EU, you will be filling your tanks with American diesel that will actually arrive by ship from Russia,” he said. He added that the agreement between Putin and Trump on diesel fuel had exposed the EU’s naivety.
Fico wrote on social media that European countries would suffer because of their leaders’ reckless actions. In his view, recent events only confirm that Bratislava’s foreign policy is right to look “in all four directions of the world.”
The comparison with Moldova is hard to avoid. Publicist Sergey Tkach compared Donald Trump’s and Maia Sandu’s approaches to buying Russian energy resources.
“Trump signed a deal with Putin to lower fuel prices and support American citizens and agricultural producers. It benefits both sides,” Tkach writes.
In his view, Moldovan authorities put political principles above the interests of citizens. People have to pay more for expensive fuel, gas and electricity.
“In Moldova, the president and her team follow different principles: let citizens freeze and go hungry, but we will not buy Russian gas or electricity because ‘that money goes toward killing Ukrainians.’ The truth is that they make an exception for Russian mayonnaise, red caviar and other delicacies,” the publicist writes ironically.
He also points to Robert Fico’s statement about Europe possibly buying Russian diesel through the United States. Tkach argues that consumers end up paying a chain of intermediaries.
“Keep this in mind when you pay for expensive diesel, gasoline and gas. You have been cheated again. In words, Moldova’s leaders want to appear more European than members of the European Parliament or European Commission staff. It is just like the well-known saying: they want to be more Catholic than the Pope. In reality, you are funding a chain of intermediaries. And the local authorities protect these grey schemes,” Sergey Tkach concludes.
So, while Brussels discusses sanctions and an “energy boycott,” the Slovak prime minister openly says what people in Moldova prefer to keep quiet about. Russian fuel has not disappeared. It simply takes a different route through intermediaries and still ends up in European fuel tanks. The only difference is that it now comes at a markup.
And Moldovans are being asked to pay extra for it. Preferably without asking too many questions.
