Fico: Pellegrini's 2020 Moscow Trip Broke No Rules

Bratislava/Hronske Klacany, 24 March (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said after Tuesday's cabinet session that he sees no breach of rules in a foreign trip made by then prime minister Peter Pellegrini to Russia in 2020.

Fico was responding to media reports that Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto had arranged Pellegrini's visit to Moscow in order to help the Smer-led 2018-20 government in the election campaign.

"I don't know what's so unusual about someone wanting to help someone else. It wasn't corruption or anything else. I think this is primarily a question that should be directed at the then leaders of the Smer candidate list, but I see no interference or breach of rules in it.

A breach of rules is when the British Foreign Office hires a company that then pays influencers, actors and well-known personalities in Slovakia to help the Progressive Slovakia party," he said.

The prime minister also pointed out that he didn't head the Smer-SD candidate list in the 2020 parliamentary elections. "I was not part of the election campaign," he added.

According to Dennik N, Szijjarto, at the request of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that it was "crucially important" for Hungary to make sure that the then coalition stayed in power in Slovakia and that receiving then prime minister Pellegrini in Moscow would "greatly help him to win the election".

The head of state told TASR that he took part in a standard meeting in 2020 and wouldn't allow himself to be drawn into the election campaign in Hungary or related activities.

The opposition has criticised the trip, speaking of Russian interference in Slovakia's elections.

In 2025, in response to the British Foreign Office providing a grant in 2023 to organisations aiming to increase voter turnout among young people, Fico's government introduced a new criminal offence of obstructing an election campaign in cooperation with a "foreign power".