PM FICO'S JANUARY 29 LUNCH WITH THE AMBASSADOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BRATISLAVA 000061

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV AF SR LY VE LO
SUBJECT: PM FICO'S JANUARY 29 LUNCH WITH THE AMBASSADOR

REF: A. BRATISLAVA 754

B. BRATISLAVA 21

C. BRATISLAVA 31

D. BRATISLAVA 58

Classified By: Ambassador Rodolphe M. Vallee for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d
)


1. (C) Summary. PM Robert Fico hosted the Ambassador for a
two-hour lunch in his office on January 29. Fico denied that
he is moving Slovakia's foreign policy further from the U.S.
and agreed to consider or pass along many of the Ambassador's
suggestions on energy security and other domestic issues. End
summary.

AFGHANISTAN
--------------

2. (C) Fico said he had honored his December commitment to
the Ambassador to move the Slovak troops to Kandahar (Ref D).
Fico expressed amazement at the organization and
professionalism of the American management at Kandahar
airbase, and said it looked more like a civilian construction
site than a warrior's base. Fico opined that the base in
Kandahar is safer than Kabul, which he had visited earlier.
Fico said he was given assurances by local commanders that
there is at least 18 months of work for Slovakia's combat
engineers on the base. Fico added that he wants the Kandahar
movement to be worked out before moving forward with plans to
send Slovaks to a Czech PRT in northern Afghanistan, but that
MOD is already investigating PRT options.

PUBLIC PERSONA VS. POLICY
--------------

3. (C) The Ambassador noted that the PM's visit to Cuba's
National Day reception; his stated opposition to U.S. missile
defense assets in Slovakia (comment: the PM responded to a
hypothetical question from a Czech reporter - the U.S. has
not approached Slovakia about hosting such assets); the delay
in Slovakia's decision to move forces to Kandahar; rumors of
a trip to Venezuela; and his spokesperson's comments about
his own disinterest in the fate of condemned Bulgarian nurses
in Libya, all create the illusion of a greater gulf between
the U.S. and Slovakia than actual GoS policy demonstrates.
Fico responded with a spirited indictment of the press,
claiming the media had tried to manipulate his spokesperson
to adopt a position beyond his own commitment to convey the
EU position on the Bulgarian nurses. Fico said he would
never go to Venezuala because the press would put pictures of
him, Chavez, and Ahmadinejad together and that would not do -
although he thought a photo with Chavez alone would be okay.
Fico claimed "rumors" about his planned trip to Venezuela
started because Economy Minister Jahnatek was going to see an
energy project and the idiot press confused that trip with
the PM's separate planned trip to South America. (Comment: FM
Jan Kubis told us previously that he had convinced Fico not
to go to Venezuela by bluntly asking if Fico wanted to see
photos of himself next to Hugo Chavez and Iranian President
Ahmadinejad plastered all over the international media. (Ref
C) End comment.)

ENERGY SECURITY
--------------

4. (C) Fico reacted enthusiastically to the Ambassador,s
suggestion of joint scientific and technical efforts on
alternative energy research and American investment. Fico
pointed out that he had taken money from his special "slush
fund" to fund a visit by technical students to the AgMin
State Secretary,s methane-to-electricity project near the
eastern city of Presov. Fico expressed frustration with the
pace at which his ministers were addressing the issue; "the
State Forests can,t even put together a plan to retrieve the
waste wood on the forest floor," and expressed support for
wood heat in the villages - although it needs to be made less
smoky.


5. (C) Fico agreed with the Ambassador that the Russians do
not/not seem to be acting in good faith on Transpetrol. "They
look like they are delaying to run out the clock on our veto
rights," Fico said, adding that his early April meeting with
Putin would not allow time to resolve the issue. The
Ambassador noted that Jahnatek seems to be petrified of the
Russians and that Slovakia is in a better position for tough
negotiations now than it will be when Russia can ship gas
directly to Germany or when the EU's memory of the Belarus
shutoff fades. The Ambassador noted that ultimately a court
would have to decide whether the Rebgun Yukos or the Theede
Yukos had the power to sell the shares, and that Slovakia
should hedge its bets by negotiating with Theede and let the
court decide. At least the GOS would have fought. Another

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option would be to let the Poles, who are interested, or
another party, carry out the legal fight in the Dutch court,
with a side deal for all the things Slovakia wanted, with
greater share control than they had now. Fico was intrigued,
noting he still prefers a Slovak buyback of shares. Fico said
he would talk to Jahnatek about other options.

PM,S FUTURE PLANS
--------------

6. (C) Fico said he would not stand for PM again in 2010,
when his proposal to split the Smer party chairmanship from
the Premiership would go into effect. The Ambassador
marveled that there has been no press on the stated decision
not to run, since Fico had told the notoriously gossipy
diplomatic corps the same thing at Christmas-time. Fico noted
that the press have known about his idea of splitting the
Smer Chairmanship from the premiership since December, but
have only now begun to comment on his "not being able to
handle both jobs."

CHURCH AND STATE
--------------

7. (C) Fico said he would be meeting with Cardinal Korec to
reconfirm Smer's agreement with the Church that neither side
will bring up divisive social issues (i.e. homosexual
partnerships, abortion, the law on conscientious objection).
The Ambassador asked if the Smer/HZDS deputies' proposal to
require the signature of 20,000 believers (as opposed to
signatures of mere supporters) for the registration of new
religions breached that agreement. Fico first emphasized that
the proposal was not made by the government, and then noted
that the intent is to stop groups from getting signatures
from "students who will sign anything" and thereby to prevent
the registration of Islam. The Ambassador urged greater
openness on the religious registration issue. Fico said he
would discuss it with Minister of Culture Marek Madaric.
(Comment. Fico made an oblique reference to Archbishop Sokol
when he noted that Korec is a Cardinal and not "a troublesome
Archbishop." Sokol recently made troubling comments in favor
of the WWII-era fascist Slovak state. (Ref B) End comment.)


8. (C) Fico claimed that right-wing opposition parties KDH
and SDKU never send representatives to commemorations of the
1944 Slovak National Uprising because they are beholden to
Catholics with a positive view of the Slovak fascist leader
Joseph Tiso, and that he is always alone at events
commemorating the holocaust. (Comment. Poloffs have met
officials of both KDH and SDKU at official commemorations of
the Slovak National Uprising and Holocaust. End comment.)

THE MALINOVA CASE
--------------

9. (C) The Ambassador noted rumors, disturbing because they
come from several unconnected sources, that Hedviga Malinova
has been subject to harassment, including a break-in in at
her apartment and confrontations with shady figures who
showed her pictures of the break-in. (Comment. Malinova is an
ethnic-Hungarian student who claims to have been assaulted by
skin-heads in August. The PM and IntMin have both publicly
discredited her account of the incident (Ref A). End comment)
The Ambassador noted that it would be disturbing if such
harassment was state sanctioned and that, if not, the police
should be looking into it. Fico said he had also heard such
rumors, but that if the harassment were state sanctioned the
Hungarians would have been all over the government, and that
the Hungarian PM has assured him the Malinova case is closed.
Fico promised, however, to ask Interior Minister Robert
Kalinak to look into the allegations.

SLOVAK INFORMATION SERVICE
--------------

10. (C) Fico said that HZDS nominee Kafka was absolutely not
the right person for the number two position at SIS and that
there has been a lot of tension with HZDS on this issue. Fico
hopes Meciar can be convinced to nominate current Ambassador
to NATO Igor Slobodnik, who has HZDS connections. Fico even
said he was going to tell Meciar he didn,t like Slobodnik,
in the belief that would help Meciar to appreciate Slobodnik
more.

KOSOVO
--------------

11. (C) Fico,s impression is that Europe is not united on
Kosovo, and consensus will be difficult to find, though in
the end, Britain, Germany, and France would force something
through. Fico added that "we central Europeans are still
second class citizens - these EU leadership meetings are
completely worthless." Fico said he will not act as an
impediment to EU consensus and asked "why would I want

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Slovakia to stand out by itself?" He does, however, feel
strongly that the Serbs should not be humiliated. Fico
claimed not to be sure of his coalition partner's positions
on Kosovo. (Comment. Kubis told the Ambassador he had met
with SNS leader Jan Slota, and that Slota is adamantly
against Kosovar independence. Kubis is hoping to get passive
resistance rather than active opposition but had no response
yet. End comment.) Strangely, Fico thinks Poland could be a
problem on Kosovo.
VALLEE