Slovak opposition parties have announced they will initiate a no-confidence vote against Minister of Foreign Affairs Juraj Blanár after the minister held talks with Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov.

Slovak opposition parties dismissed minister of environment Tomáš Taraba last month after some legislators from the junior ruling ultranationalist Slovak National Party joined opposition ranks in the no-confidence vote, but it is unlikely Prime Minister Robert Fico would expose his loyalist Blanár to a similar fate.

Blanár has met with Lavrov on several occasions, but the October 26 meeting was the first held in Moscow, where Blanár led a delegation to the 22nd summit of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation between Slovakia and Russia. 

“We need to stay in contact with Russia ... in the context of solving situations regarding the decisions of the European Commission and decoupling from Russian energy sources,” Blanár was quoted as saying by Slovak state broadcaster STVR following the talks with Lavrov.

“With Mr. Minister we discussed the RePowerEU legislation, which the Slovak Republic voted against and which we sued as well,” Blanár added.

Fico's cabinet filed a lawsuit against the EU’s phase out of imports of Russian gas and oil this April, arguing the phase out requires a unanimous EU decision.

“The measure was approved as a tool of trade policy by a qualified majority, but by its nature it is a decision with sanctions characteristics in the field of foreign and security policy, where unanimity of member states is required,” Minister of Justice Boris Susko stated in April.

Fico has made energy a central focus of his Smer party’s pro-Kremlin turn. Last summer, Fico even delayed the EU's eighteenth sanctions package against Russia, and repeatedly slammed the EU’s plans to phase out Russian energy imports by 2027.

Slovakia nearly eradicated Russian gas imports during the winter of 2022-2023, but imports spiked following the return of the Fico-led government in the autumn of 2023.

Blanár reiterated that Slovakia’s state-controlled gas company Slovenský plynárenský priemysel (SPP) has a valid contract with Gazprom until 2034 on the “take or pay” principle and he wants to avoid "arbitration".

Under the contract the Russian side is committed to sending its gas to Slovakia for free, covering gas transit fees all the way to the Slovak border.

Blanár also stated that Lavrov assured him Russia remains committed to the existing agreements and Lavrov was also supposed to update Blanár on Russia-US talks regarding energy.

“The Russian Federation is hardly replaceable for stability of energy sources not just for the Slovak Republic, but also for global trade with energy, which we are seeing now with the crisis in the Hormuz Strait,” Blanár was quoted as saying by STVR.

Blanár was accompanied by the Ministry of Economy state secretary Vladimír Šimoňák on the trip, during which he signed a protocol with Lavrov on further intergovernmental themes and activities, as well as by the heads of SPP and the Slovak state Nuclear and Decommissioning Company Javys

Blanár is a Fico loyalist and has been instrumental in Fico’s pro-Kremlin turn. He was nominated to Fico’s cabinet, which also includes centre-left Hlas and SNS, by Smer. This marked a break from the traditional government practice for much of the past two decades  – including Fico’s previous cabinets – of appointing senior career diplomats to head the ministry.

Blanár, who lacked significant foreign policy experience before his appointment, called for peace negotiations with the Kremlin.

When forming his cabinet in October 2023, Fico declared of Blanár's nomination he wanted “a pike fish which will chase the old carps in the pond of Slovak diplomacy”.