C O N F I D E N T I A L BRATISLAVA 000382 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 
01/17/2014 TAGS: MOPS, PREL, PHUM, OSCE, UN, GG, RS, LO SUBJECT: TFGG01:
SLOVAKIA WILL URGE RUSSIAN WITHDRAWAL BUT NOT ASSIGN BLAME REF: A. 
SECSTATE 87254 B. BRATISLAVA 377 Classified By: DCM Keith Eddins for 
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 

1. (C) DCM delivered ref A points in 
Ambassador's absence to MFA Political Director Roman Buzek. Buzek 
supported the US points and said Slovakia will urge both Russia and 
Georgia to fulfill their commitments. He agreed that it is most 
important to keep pressure on Russia. 

2. (C) Buzek lamented that there 
is a lack of confirmable information coming out of the region and said 
that his main sources for news are CNN and the BBC. Buzek implied 
Georgian actions had caused the immediate conflict, but said it would be
necessary to look back more than two hundred years to find out who 
started it. 

3. (C) Buzek described MFA State Secretary Algayerova's 
conversation with the Russian Ambassador on Monday (ref B) as "blunt" 
and said she asked how one could imagine that a country of 5 million 
people would start a war with a country of 150 million that spends 59 
times more on defense. 

4. (C) Slovakia's position at the August 13 GAERC
was, according to Buzek, balanced. Algayerova emphasized the need to 
build on progress being made towards a peaceful solution, get Russian 
troops back to their August 6 positions, and leave judgments about the 
origins of the immediate conflict to historians. 

5. (C) Buzek,s 
characterization of the situation reflected Prime Minister Fico's 
comments to journalists on August 13, in which he said, "I wouldn't view
the situation as black and white, as some see it, because someone 
provoked the situation, and we know who provoked it. Then a reaction 
came, and that reaction was very strong, which is why we must cross our 
fingers and sit down at the table and resolve things. But I refuse to 
adopt a black-and-white view, that one side is good and the other bad." 
Fico went on to say that wherever people are being killed, it is 
necessary to stop shooting immediately and come to a ceasefire. OBSITNIK