Slovakia pushes back on pressure over Russia energy purchases

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Slovakia on Wednesday pushed back on pressure it is facing to cut back its purchases of Russian energy, saying it was ready to discuss the issue, but singled out some European states for increasing their gas purchases from Moscow. Populist-led Slovakia and Hungary - both EU members - have sought to maintain political ties with Russia, which supplies the majority of their oil needs, and have argued that it would be too costly to wean themselves off Russian supplies after building their infrastructure around it. But they have over the last couple of weeks come under further pressure after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wanted to see the bloc completely end its Russian energy purchases.