Slovak prime minister Robert Fico has given in to EU pressure on Russia sanctions, while claiming victory in a Facebook video full of threats and insults.
His ambassador to the EU lifted Slovakia's veto on the 18th round of Russia sanctions in Brussels on Friday morning (18 July), enabling EU affairs ministers in the EU Council to formally adopt the measures.
The 18th round tightens up a price cap on Russian oil sales, bans over 70 more shady Russian oil tankers from EU ports, and forbids future use of two dormant Russia-Germany gas pipelines.
It also imposes visa bans and asset-freezes on some 40 mostly Russian individuals and entities, and bans over 20 small Russian banks from using Europe's 'SWIFT' wire-transfer grid.
"We will keep raising the costs, so stopping the aggression becomes the only path forward for Moscow," said EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas on X.
Polish EU affairs minister Adam Szłapka said: "We're very happy with this sanctions package".
Fico had been vetoing it for the past six weeks in order to try to force the EU to let him keep buying Russian gas, in the face of European plans to ban Russian gas imports from 2028.
He also said the potential cost of a lawsuit with Russian firm Gazprom, with which Bratislava has a long-term contract for gas supplies until 2034, could be between €16bn and €20bn.
But in the end, the Slovak populist PM backed down in return for a letter from EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, which promised to help Slovakia if the 2028 cut-off caused a financial shock.
The letter, which contained no concrete financial commitments, recalled a previous "useless facing-saving declaration" granted to Hungary in a veto battle in January.
And Fico admitted its flimsiness by threatening to veto the 19th round of Russia sanctions "if any of this fails ... with a smile on my face".
He had also said in his own previous statement on 18 July that von der Leyen's letter was "insufficient ... nothing".
Fico said he gave in on Friday because of "enormous pressure, threats, harsh words", without giving further detail.
And he peppered his statement with pro-Russian and anti-EU remarks.
Russia was the victim of "ideologically and obsessively anti-Russian proposals" and "the anti-Russian sentiment in the European Union is ... mad", Fico said, without mentioning Russia's invasion of Ukraine or its hybrid warfare against the EU.
He called the gas cut-off plan "imbecilic" and spoke of scenarios in which "everyone in Europe were to die of hunger and cold".
Russia supplied some 20 percent of EU gas consumption last year.
Since the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine was halted at the end of 2024, Slovakia has relied on supplies from Hungary, which mostly gets Russian gas through the TurkStream pipeline in the Black Sea.
Fico travelled to Moscow last December to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin over gas deliveries, triggering harsh criticism in Europe.
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.