President regrets Andrej Danko’s position on sanctions

The Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko reiterated on Thursday his position on sanctions against Russia, which in his opinion are ineffective and should be revoked. During the Euro-Asian parliamentary summit in Antalya at the beginning of this week, Andrej Danko outlined his effort to welcome in Slovakia the Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, who is on the EU sanctions list. Slovak President Andrej Kiska received Danko's statements questioning the European Union's sanctions against Russia with regret. "This time last year in October the three top constitutional officials signed a declaration and … committed ourselves to ensuring a clear and responsible communication of Slovakia's pro-European and pro-NATO orientation and to observing jointly adopted decisions within the EU and NATO," said Kiska at the two-day summit, with the participation of the presidents of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland in Štrbské Pleso. Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) in this context said that even though he politically understood the EU sanctions against Russia, they were harmful for Slovakia in economic terms. "The Slovak Republic is always on the side of its allies. On the other hand, Slovakia has the right to express its opinion that when we look at what has been achieved by sanctions, it has turned out to be nothing much," said Pellegrini.