The situation with European countries that buy Russian gas is very complicated and requires increased attention, the Kremlin said on Monday after talks the previous day between President Vladimir Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Fico is the third EU leader, after Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, to meet with Putin since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. #Euro

The EU has a non-binding goal of stopping all Russian energy imports by 2027. “The end of Ukraine transit could speed up this decoupling, and would also imply a loss of $6.5 billion annually for Russia, unless it can redirect these flows to other pipelines or LNG terminals,” Bruegel said.