In October 2014, Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom cut natural gas supplies to Slovakia by 50 percent, nominally due to technical issues. Slovak officials believe the reduction was in response to Slovakia assisting Ukraine in building up gas supplies before winter. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico stated that the Kremlin was “playing with gas supplies as an instrument of political posturing.” According to the Congressional Research Service, Slovakia depends on Russia for 98 percent of the natural gas it consumes, accounting for over 27 percent of the country’s primary energy supply. Although a technical issue was used as justification for the cuts, Gazprom has regularly used similar reasons when disrupting energy flows for political purposes.