Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threw down the gauntlet on Tuesday when he openly demanded a legal exemption to continue buying Russian gas until 2034 in exchange for lifting his veto on the new package of European Union sanctions against Russia, which the bloc is eager to approve to tighten the screws on the Kremlin.
The take-it-or-leave-it request raises serious questions on whether the political deadlock can be broken this week, as diplomats had hoped.
