A massive military parade in Tiananmen Square to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and in particular of Japan. And completely leaving aside the fact that Tokyo surrendered after the American bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Xi Jinping, dressed in a suit similar to the one worn by Mao, rehearses a hoped-for ‘new world order’ and celebrates the greatness of China alongside Putin and Kim, recipients of a place of honor, and more than 20 foreign leaders, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and the head of the Burmese military junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, as well as the leaders of Vietnam, Indonesia, Kazhakistan, Azerbaijan and Cuba. And then the president of Belarus and Putin's staunch ally, Alexander Lukashenko, and that of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic. But there is also a European leader, the only one: the Slovakian Prime Minister, Robert Fico. Hungary, not to be outdone, has sent Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to Beijing to represent him at the military parade. During the trip, he will meet with his counterpart and major Chinese companies to deepen economic cooperation and attract further investment.

Fico, known for his statements that often echo the positions of the Kremlin on the war in Ukraine, was in Beijing , as in May at the Victory Parade in Moscow, on Red Square. And in the Chinese capital he also met with the leader of the Kremlin : a face-to-face meeting that for Marie Bjerre, Danish Minister for European Affairs who spoke on behalf of the rotating presidency of the EU Council,"is not a good sign. It is important that the EU remains aligned on the common foreign and security policy." During their conversation with Fico, Putin described the Europeans' accusations of wanting to attack them as"total nonsense" and part of a "horror film" created by NATO countries. Almost simultaneously, however, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte again raised the alarm, denouncing a"huge buildup of the Russian armed forces."

With Fico, known for his pro-Moscow positions, Putin took a seemingly conciliatory tone regarding possible progress on Ukraine, but without actually any substantial change of position and the Slovak prime minister, for his part, declared that he wanted to “continue to cooperate” with Moscow “in the energy sector” for “the supply of Russian gas and oil” and that on Friday he would meet Zelensky in Uzhgorod, in Ukraine, and raise with him the issue of Kiev raids on energy infrastructure. Budapest and Bratislava – united by their increasingly frequent rejections of European policies against Moscow, although Slovakia in a more nuanced manner – have no qualms about courting Vladimir Putin and claiming their"difference" from the mainstream Brussels. The tsar thanks them and says he approves of Slovakia's"independent economic foreign policy," which is based precisely on continuing to receive Russian oil and gas, possibly even increasing imports."I don't understand some of the EU's decisions," Fico remarked, noting that natural gas arriving from Russia via TurkStream is"gradually growing" and is now reaching four billion cubic meters per year. The prime minister also confirmed that Slovakia will vote against the Commission's plan to end Russian natural gas supplies starting January 1, 2028, and expressed his belief that"a lot can still change" by that date and that this measure will be invalid because it "significantly harms" European countries. As if that weren't enough, he then blasted Ukraine, guilty of repeatedly hitting the Druzhba (Russian for"friendship") pipeline, the main route for Russian crude oil to Central Europe (excluded from sanctions precisely to give those landlocked nations time to find alternative solutions). Solutions they are evidently not seeking. The Commission was quick to point out that Fico does not represent the EU's position. And from the West, except Hungary and Slovakia, Putin continues to be accused of stalling for peace efforts while the Russian army attempts to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses.