And just six leaders from UN-recognised states joined him \u2013 Belarus, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Slovakia, and Uzbekistan \u2013 which also showed his isolation.<\/p>\n
Looking tired, his combover thinner than last year, but with more bodyguards than ever, Putin blamed Nato for the Ukraine war in a brief speech and left quickly.<\/p>\n
He later told press he wanted a Gazprom employee (and former German chancellor)<\/a>, 82-year-old Gerhard Schr\u00f6der, to be the EU\u2019s representative in new Ukraine peace talks.<\/p>\n But even if there were to be peace negotiations, the way some EU countries treated Fico indicated there was little chance Europe would give Putin\u2019s man, Schr\u00f6der, that honour.<\/p>\n Fico had to fly via the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, and Finland to Russia and back because the Baltic states and Poland closed their airspace in protest at his Kremlin simping.<\/p>\n He jokingly called himself the \u201cblack sheep of the European Union<\/a>\u201d while in Moscow, said \u201cI reject a new Iron Curtain\u201d, and was filmed toasting Putin with a glass of vodka.<\/p>\n But Slovak opposition \u2018SaS\u2019 party leader Branislav Gr\u00f6hling called his trip \u201ca slap in the face\u201d for the EU, while adding that Fico went to learn \u201chow to undermine democratic elections in Slovakia\u201d, due in September 2027.<\/p>\n For his part, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky trolled Putin by publishing an official \u201cpermission\u201d for his Victory Day event.<\/p>\n And Western schadenfreude over Moscow\u2019s mini-parade was compounded by joy in Budapest the same day, where the pro-EU and Ukraine-friendly government of prime minister P\u00e9ter Magyar was sworn in<\/a>.<\/p>\n Magyar DJ-ed, while Hungary\u2019s likely new health minister, Zsolt Hegedus, danced on stage.<\/p>\n Too soon for optimism<\/p>\n It is too optimistic to think Putin\u2019s regime, or far-right EU populism, are on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n But Putin did look in decline on Saturday, while Fico might soon go the way of former Hungarian prime minister and Putin\u2019s only other EU ally, Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n Some 360,000 Slovaks (out of 5.5m) filed a petition in April calling for early elections.<\/p>\n And although the president rejected this, a referendum on 4 July will test Fico\u2019s popularity, when Slovaks vote on \u201cthe abolition of the so-called lifetime annuity; for example, for [prime minister] Robert Fico\u201d, and on the reinstatement of anti-corruption bodies.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1729688599814_20241023_EP-174102D_AR2_MCU_037-1-600x400.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n