No one had heard from Robert Fico for two weeks since his trip to Moscow, where he saw Vladimir Putin, and he only communicated with his country through videos on social media
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico reportedly disappeared after meeting Vladimir Putin – but has resurfaced two weeks later.
Mr Fico, 60, has been seen in a luxury hotel in Vietnam, weeks after reports claimed he had vanished after a trip to Moscow. During this period, no one had heard from the politician and he only communicated with his country through videos on social media.
Many of the uploaded clips contained a view of only drawn curtains and closed windows, which led viewers to struggle to work out where exactly Mr Fico, who founded left-wing political party Direction – Social Democracy, was.
Speculation mounted among MPs he was spending the festive season in Dubai, but now Mr Fico has been spotted at the glamorous Capella Hanoi hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam. Rooms there reportedly cost up to £4,900 a night.
According to The Slovak Spectator, despite inquiries from Slovak media to the hotel and the Slovak government, the prime minister’s exact activities in Thailand remain unclear as no official visit has been announced.
Mr Fico, born in Topoľčany, Czechoslovakia in 1964, held talks with Mr Putin last month amid a spat between Bratislava and Kyiv over the cessation of Russian gas transits through Ukraine.
Despite his “disappearance”, crowds gathered in the Slovakian capital on Friday in protest of Mr Fico’s policies, in particular, his meeting with the Russian leader. The demonstration was organised by the Peace for Ukraine activist group which argues that Slovakia is part of the EU and that Fico’s Moscow trip undermined the country’s position in the bloc.
Around 4,000 protesters held banners reading “We are Europe” and “Traitor” and chanted slogans including “We will not be silent,” “We will not give up Slovakia,” and “Down with Fico,” the Polish Press Agency reported.
Mr Fico released a video statement on January 3 in which he threatened to halt support for Ukrainian refugees, accusing Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky of “sabotaging” Russian gas supplies, and claimed this was causing Slovakia an annual financial loss of almost £415million.
Father-of-one Mr Fico was shot several times in an assassination attempt in Handlova, Slovakia in May last year. Reports suggested the politician “survived by a hair”.
