The Slovakian visit, planned already before the gas dispute, will continue until Wednesday, TASS and Slovakia’s news agency TASR reported.

Before flying to Russia, Speaker Andrej Danko said that Poland had not granted the Slovakian delegation permission to fly in its airspace, which is why they took a detour via the Czech Republic and Germany.

But Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman Paweł Wroński debunked this, saying that the Slovakian side sent incomplete documents and, when asked to complete them, decided to change the route.

On Friday, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said that Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that Russia's state gas company Gazprom GAZP.MM would find alternative ways to deliver contracted gas to Slovakia after the end of transit through Ukraine.

Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since Moscow's 2022 invasion, refused to renew a transit deal with Russia as it seeks to cut revenues going to Moscow to fund the war.

TASS cited recent statements of Danko and others in the delegation as saying they wanted to discuss investments in the West and also gas issues with the representatives of the Russian lower house of parliament - the Duma.

According to TASS, the Slovakian delegation is scheduled to meet Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, on Monday and the head of the upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, on Tuesday.