ISTANBUL

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has criticized EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas over her warning to leaders against visiting Moscow to attend celebrations marking the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II on May 9, calling her remarks "disrespectful" and a threat to democratic values.

"Ms. Kallas’s words are disrespectful, and I strongly object to them,” Fico said on X, after Kallas’s warning of "serious consequences" for any EU leader attending the annual military parade commemorating the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany.

Fico said he would travel to Moscow. "I will go to Moscow to pay tribute to the thousands of Red Army soldiers who died liberating Slovakia, as well as to the millions of other victims of Nazi terror," Fico said, adding that he also honors Allied forces such as RAF pilots and those who died during the Normandy landings.

"Ms. Kallas, I would like to inform you that I am the legitimate Prime Minister of Slovakia – a sovereign country. No one can dictate to me where I can or cannot travel," he said.

He said he was unsure if the warning was a "form of blackmail or a signal" that he will be punished upon his return. "I don’t know. But I do know that the year is 2025, not 1939."

Fico argued that the EU official's remarks highlight a broader need to reassess the 27-member bloc's democratic principles.

"Ms. Kallas’s warning confirms that we need a discussion within the EU about the essence of democracy,” he wrote, referencing the annulled Romanian presidential election results in December, the conviction and five-year ban on French opposition leader Marine Le Pen, and "Maidans," protest movements in Georgia and Serbia allegedly backed by the West.

He also accused Brussels of ignoring the criminalization of opposition in Slovakia.

Kallas, a former Estonian premier and one of the EU’s most outspoken critics of Moscow, has urged leaders to mark May 9 by visiting Kyiv instead. "I’ve called all the member states, but also representatives of the institutions, to visit Kyiv as much as possible to show really our solidarity and that we are with Ukraine," she said.