Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday called for visa-free access to the European Union for Russians on the second day of his visit to Slovakia. "I would like to express hope that this request will be fulfilled quickly," he told reporters after meeting Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic.
"We are serious (business) partners for the EU, so... we need to have comfortable conditions for meetings and doing business," he added. Medvedev arrived in Bratislava on Tuesday evening to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the World War II liberation of the city by the Red Army before signing a landmark anti-nuclear deal with Barack Obama in Prague on Thursday.
In a joint statement, Medvedev and Gasparovic, a former Slovak communist party member, highlighted "the fundamental contribution of the Soviet Union, which bore the main burden of World War II, to Europe's liberation from fascism." "Thousands of Soviet soldiers who fought for freedom and liberated Europe from the horrors are buried in Slovakia," said Medvedev.
"If this victory hadn't been achieved, Europe would have been different. And everyone who now tries to present different interpretations of the history of that time must remember this," he added.
Medvedev awarded medals to war veterans on Wednesday morning and will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial of Russian soldiers in the afternoon before leaving for Prague in the neighbouring Czech Republic on Wednesday evening. In the Czech capital, Medvedev and US President Obama will sign a landmark nuclear disarmament treaty on Thursday, a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expired last December.
This is Medvedev's first visit to Slovakia - seen as one of Russia's closest allies in central Europe - since he was elected president in 2008. The centre of Bratislava was closed for traffic on Tuesday with almost 1,000 policemen guarding the security of the Russian head of state, the police told AFP.
The Russian delegation comprising also Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko signed nine agreements on security and energy co-operation in Bratislava on Wednesday. One of the deals signed by Slovak power producer and distributor Slovenske elektrarne and Russian nuclear-fuel maker TVEL concerns fuel supplies from Russia to Slovakia's nuclear plant in Mochovce.
No details on the deal were immediately available. Russia is one of Slovakia's largest business partners and its exclusive source of natural gas and oil. But none of them spoke to the press about Russia's apology for its invasion into former Czechoslovakia in 1968, which crushed the so-called Prague Spring - a brief political liberalisation in the communist state. A small group of protesters that came to the presidential palace in Bratislava to demand an apology, held up a banner saying "August 21, 1968 - APOLOGIZE".
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