Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in China in the coming days, the Kremlin said Sunday – talks set to further strain tensions between Bratislava and Brussels.
Fico is one of the few EU leaders to have maintained regular contact with Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
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Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters a meeting between the pair was “planned,” without providing details of what they would discuss or when exactly they would meet.
Fico is to travel to Beijing for Wednesday’s parade marking the end of the Asian theatre of World War II.
Putin is in the Chinese city of Tianjin for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and is due to sit next to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Beijing parade.
Fico has irked European leaders by criticizing the bloc’s support for Ukraine and pushing back against efforts to cut energy imports from Russia.
Slovakia is heavily reliant on Russian gas.
In May, he defied Brussels by traveling to Moscow for Putin’s grand Victory Day parade on Red Square.
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