‘Year is 2025, not 1939’ – Fico challenges EU’s warning against Moscow trip

The Slovak prime minister has denounced the bloc’s “dictate” on attending May 9 celebrations in Russia

15 APR 2025 CET RT: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico © Pier Marco Tacca / Getty Images

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has firmly rejected recent warnings by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to European leaders against attending Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on May 9, asserting that “the year is 2025, not 1939.”

Kallas stated on Monday that any participation by EU leaders in the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Russian capital “will not be taken lightly” by Brussels.

“WARNING AND THREAT BY MS. KALLAS ARE DISRESPECTFUL AND I STRONGLY OBJECT TO THEM,” Fico wrote on X on Tuesday.

The Slovak leader confirmed his intention to participate in the commemorations, stating, “I will go to Moscow on May 9th.”

Fico questioned the nature of Kallas’ remarks, suggesting they may imply punitive consequences for attending.

“Is Ms. Kallas’s warning a form of blackmail or a signal that I will be punished upon my return from Moscow? I don’t know. But I do know that the year is 2025, not 1939,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia that year.

The prime minister argued that Kallas’ comments confirm the need to reflect on internal democratic values within the EU. He referenced recent elections in Romania and France, where top presidential candidates were banned from running. Fico also called for discussions “about the ‘Maidans’ organized by the West in Georgia and Serbia, and how the abuse of criminal law against the opposition in Slovakia has been ignored.”

Fico emphasized that his travel plans are a matter of national sovereignty.

“Ms. Kallas, I would like to inform you that I am the legitimate Prime Minister of Slovakia – a sovereign country. No one can dictate to me where I can or cannot travel,” he said.

Explaining his motives for attending the event, he added, “I will go to Moscow to pay tribute to the thousands of Red Army soldiers who died liberating Slovakia, as well as to the millions of other victims of Nazi terror.” He also pointed out that he has attended other commemorations honoring the victims of World War II