Fico, on at least one occasion, issued an apology to a foreign politician whose visit to Slovakia was largely ignored by the media. When Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov visited in April 2008, most media did not consider the visit of the virtually unknown Zubkov substantially newsworthy. To make matters worse, during the press conference the journalists were not allowed to ask any questions. Subsequently, Fico sent Zubkov a letter of apology in which he apologized for the Slovak media's lack of interest in his visit.