Eurotopics.net

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico surprised both friends and foes with a visit to Moscow shortly before Christmas. His country is in a predicament because Ukraine is refusing to extend a deal allowing the transit of Russian gas via its territory to Slovakia for 2025. Following his visit to Putin, Fico said he would cut off Slovakian power supplies to Ukraine if it continued to refuse transit. He also offered his country as a venue for peace negotiations with Ukraine to Putin.

In 2024, almost half of the world's population was asked to go to the polls: a real super election year. What lessons can be learned from the results? And what are the chances of a successful democratic new beginning in Syria after the fall of the Assad regime? Commentators take stock.

In its defensive war against the Russian invasion, Ukraine suffered a number of setbacks in 2024. Neither the Kursk offensive that began in August nor the long-awaited permission to use imported weapons to attack military targets in Russia have brought the breakthrough Kyiv had hoped for. The world is now nervously waiting to see whether Trump, as the future US president, can force the parties to negotiate - and what such negotiations might lead to.