The heads of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia oppose a potential worsening of their economic problems because of EU's and USA's sanctions against Russia.
As Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico said at a conference in Bratislava, the countries of Western Europe continued to conclude deals with Russian companies, threatening the Russian Federation with new sanctions. This is hypocritical, the official said. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also said that they did not want to miss business opportunities in cooperation with Russia.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a different view. He said that the EU should speak with one voice on the issue of sanctions against Russia and share economic costs.
"We talk about unity, but France plans to sell its warships to Russia. We're talking about how to ensure energy security of Ukraine and we make key decisions in the Council of the EU, while Gazprom signs South Stream contracts with German, French and Italian companies," he said.
In fact, the countries of Eastern Europe want their richer western neighbors to share economic costs with them the that will spring from enforcing sanctions against Russia. Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary are also dependent on Russia in matters of gas supplies, and they demand guarantees in this sphere.