Smer MP Tibor Gašpar talks to the press, while a group of opposition MPs protest against the Russian ambassador's planned visit to the Slovak parliament on May 7, 2024. (source: Facebook/Progresívne Slovensko)
On the day of Vladimir Putin’s presidential inauguration, May 7, Defence and Security Parliamentary Committee Chair, Tibor Gašpar, was scheduled to meet with Russian Ambassador Igor Bratchikov in the Slovak parliament.
Gašpar’s meeting with the ambassador was cancelled at the last minute. “We had to postpone it because we will now discuss, and possibly vote on, an important bill (a spending limits bill, ed.),” the Smer MP told the media. According to the SaS opposition party, Bratchikov feared entering the parliament. Gašpar, who initially walked out of the parliament to welcome the ambassador but returned without him, refuted this claim.
Regardless, Gašpar, who is a former police chief facing corruption charges and suspected of being involved in organized crime when the Smer party ruled the country for the second and third time (2012-20), appears to be determined to meet Bratchikov.
“I will certainly receive him,” he told the press, as quoted by Denník N.
