MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron, like Vladimir Zelensky, no longer serves his nation, deputy speaker of Slovakia’s parliament, Andrej Danko, told TASS.
When asked about potential ways out of the current energy crisis provoked by the cessation of gas transit via Ukraine, he said, "I am not an economics minister but a political party leader and a deputy parliament speaker, so, I look upon this matte from a political point of view."
"It hurts me when Western countries, for instance, France, say that they can supply us with nuclear fuel, which, as a matter of fact, originates from Russia. It hurts me when someone says, ‘we don’t buy Russian gas any longer,’ when the gas they use originates from Russia. This can be said about both gas and oil. Anyone who has any idea about the technological process understands that you cannot simply replace one fuel by another and stop using fuel that once was used at a nuclear plant," he noted. "I consider this as the West’s hypocrisy and insincerity because they want to preserve their social welfare level. And such politicians as Macron and Zelensky do not serve their countries."
"Macron is making loud statement but I see that a lot of French companies are still operating in Russia while they are telling us that all German and French companies have withdrawn from Russia. This is not the way things are," he added.
Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine was fully halted on January 1 due to Kiev’s refusal to extend the agreement. Slovakia was among the recipients of the Russian gas. Later, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced the cancellation of the EU gas consultations, initially scheduled for January 7, due to the absence of the Ukrainian delegation. On January 9, the Slovak prime minister threatened to take tougher measures against Ukraine unless the gas transit issues are resolved.