Is Slovakia Sleepwalking Into Moscow’s Trojan Horse Role Inside the EU?

A single diplomatic meeting rarely changes the course of a country’s foreign policy. But sometimes it crystallises a choice that has been building for years — and Slovakia is running out of time to make it.

On March 10, Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár met with Russian Ambassador Sergei Andreev in Bratislava. The official readout was brief and vague – “current issues of bilateral relations.” But as Fakti.bg reports, citing Slovak outlet InfoDnes.sk, what was actually discussed points to something more fundamental than bilateral housekeeping. It points to a country quietly drifting away from its European and transatlantic anchors — without, apparently, fully acknowledging where that drift leads.

What Was Actually on the Table

The talks reportedly covered Slovakia’s possible legal challenge to the EU’s plan to phase out Russian gas imports by 2027 — a move that would pit Bratislava directly against Brussels at a moment when most member states are accelerating energy diversification. Also discussed were the functioning of the Druzhba oil pipeline, a proposed inspection commission to monitor it, the possible resumption of the intergovernmental commission for economic and scientific-technical cooperation between Slovakia and Russia, and the re-accreditation of Russian military attachés — a sensitive issue across Europe given the widespread expulsion of Russian diplomats suspected of espionage since 2022.

Each item on that list has a plausible bilateral justification. Together, they describe a country that is not just managing its relationship with Moscow but actively deepening it, at a time when the rest of Europe is moving in the opposite direction.

Who Is Sergei Andreev?

The choice of interlocutor matters too. Andreev is not a standard career diplomat. His biography — including postings in Mozambique during the Cold War, when the country served as a hub for Soviet intelligence activity, and work alongside figures like Igor Sechin, now one of Putin’s closest allies — places him firmly in the tradition of the siloviki, where diplomacy and intelligence work are rarely kept separate. His previous posting in Poland ended under a cloud of suspicion over hostile activity. After hundreds of Russian intelligence-linked “diplomats” were expelled from Prague, Paris, London and other European capitals, the question is why such a figure is now operating out of Bratislava — and why the Slovak government is apparently comfortable with that.

What happened in the days immediately following the meeting offers some clues about what Russia thinks it has gained. Andreev gave an interview to Solovyov Live — a flagship Kremlin propaganda outlet — praising what he called the “courage” of Slovak leadership in maintaining dialogue with Moscow. The day after the meeting, speaking to TASS, he went further: Slovakia, he suggested, might withdraw its support for Ukraine’s EU membership bid over the Druzhba pipeline dispute. These were not casual remarks. They were signals about which side of the line Bratislava is moving toward.

A Pattern, Not an Anomaly

This meeting does not exist in isolation. As we have previously reported, Prime Minister Robert Fico made an unannounced trip to Moscow in December 2024 — ostensibly over gas transit but widely read as a political signal. He has since floated the idea of Slovak neutrality, raising questions about the country’s long-term commitment to NATO. His rhetoric on the Russian-Ukrainian war — speaking of the need to “understand the causes of the conflict” — echoes language common in Kremlin messaging. Blanár himself has met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov multiple times since taking office in 2023, while consistently refraining from open support for Ukraine.

Individually, each of these steps has been presented as pragmatic, sovereign, and bilateral. Cumulatively, they trace a direction — away from Brussels and Washington, towards a grey zone that Moscow has long sought to cultivate inside EU and NATO structures.

The Broader Stakes

Slovakia is not Hungary. It has not openly broken with European institutions or declared itself a mediator between East and West. But the gap between where Bratislava says it stands and where its actions are pointing is becoming harder to explain away. For allies in Warsaw, Prague and Brussels, the question is no longer whether Slovakia is drifting but whether its leadership has made a deliberate choice about where it wants to end up.

Either Slovakia remains a solid part of the European and transatlantic space or its foreign policy continues moving toward that grey zone between East and West — a zone that, once entered, has proven difficult to leave. The Blanár-Andreev meeting did not create this choice. But it made it harder to pretend it isn’t there.