The leader of only one European Union member state joined other world leaders, including a number of dictators and autocrats, in Beijing earlier this week - all of whom were invitees of Chinese President Xi Jinping to celebrate 80 years since the defeat of Japan in World War II.
That lone EU leader was Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has pursued close economic and diplomatic ties with Russia in opposition to EU foreign policy.
Mr Fico's one-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the event in Beijing was the third meeting between the two leaders since last December.
While, yesterday, Mr Fico held only his first bilateral with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky since returning to the role of Slovak prime minister in October 2023.
In Beijing, Mr Putin praised Mr Fico's government for its "independent foreign policy" in a clear dig at shared EU support for Ukraine.
Russia's leader also said on Tuesday that his country would remain "a reliable supplier of energy resources" to Slovakia, which is what Mr Fico wanted to hear.
The Slovak prime minister then followed up by saying that his government was "extremely interested in the standardisation of relations" between Slovakia and Russia.
Mr Fico's Russia-friendly policy is partly fuelled by efforts to maintain cheap Russian gas imports, and deliver the kind of low energy prices that his coalition promised its voters.
However, a combination of historical allegiances and political gamesmanship are also at hand.
"Slovak nationalism is pro-Russian traditionally," Alexander Duleba, a senior political scientist at the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, told RTÉ News.
Mr Fico's strategy, he said, is to appeal to anti-establishment voters where nationalism plays a role in shaping views.
"Fico needs a conflict. He needs to portray to his electorate that he is in conflict with European partners, in conflict with Zelensky and that he has good ties with Russia and China."
Since returning to government in 2023 to lead a left-right populist coalition, Mr Fico has cut Slovakia's military aid to Ukraine, stalled EU sanctions packages against Moscow and committed to keep importing Russian oil and gas, gestures that have undoubtedly pleased the Kremlin.
The Slovak leader has also kept his country out of the 'Coalition of the Willing', a group of 31 countries mostly from Europe, established with the aim of protecting a post-war peace settlement in Ukraine and deterring another potential Russian invasion in the future.
Hungary and Malta are the two other European holdouts.
While the EU is moving towards phasing out all Russian natural gas imports by 2028, Slovakia, under Mr Fico, continues to import large amounts of Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline, which traverses Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary before supplying gas to Slovakia.
At the end of last year, Slovakia was importing about two-thirds of its gas from Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas company, via Ukraine. That volume amounted to about three billion cubic meters annually.
Much of the Russian gas that flowed via Ukraine to Slovakia until last January was re-exported by Slovak gas companies to neighbouring countries, such as Austria.
The loss of those gas transit fees could end up costing Slovakia about €500m annually, according to its government.
About 80% of Slovakia's crude oil supply also comes from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline, worth €178m, according to Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
"Fico sees Slovakia as a hub that deals with the West, just as it deals with the East," Géza Tokár, an analyst of Slovak politics, told RTÉ News.
"For Fico, the war in Ukraine is a source of annoyance because it makes his politics much harder".
The politics of his centre-left turned populist SMER party revolve around putting Slovak interests first, opposing immigration and berating liberalism.
Mr Fico's overtures to Moscow, his decision to cut military aid to Ukraine and his government's opposition to Kyiv's decision last year to cut off the supply of Russian gas to Slovakia via its territory have all made for tense exchanges between Bratislava and Kyiv over the past two years.
But at their joint press conference yesterday in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, Mr Fico and Mr Zelensky did a good job of trying to reset relations for the better.
Mr Fico spoke of the "positive aspects" of his meeting with Mr Zelensky.
He also reaffirmed Slovakia's support for Ukraine's EU membership bid, a position that sets Slovakia apart from Hungary, which opposes Ukrainian membership of the bloc.
For his part, Mr Zelensky said their dialogue had been "meaningful" and that Ukraine was open to supplying oil and gas to Slovakia, provided it does not come from Russia.
Slovakia's government, like Hungary's, says it has no alternative to buying Russian energy imports and that finding new suppliers would cause higher energy prices for consumers.
However, a study published by CREA last May found that both Slovakia and Hungary could import non-Russian oil from Croatia via a pipeline in the Adriatic Sea, and that there is an abundance of other natural gas suppliers available on the market.
Just 16 months ago, Mr Fico underwent five hours of life-saving surgery after being shot three times, including once in the abdomen, by an assailant.
He has made a remarkable recovery.
Yesterday, following his meeting with Mr Zelensky, the Slovak leader wished Ukraine a just peace and said that he supports security guarantees for Ukraine.
However, Mr Fico's repeated meetings with Mr Putin and his government's pursuit of Russian energy imports, suggests that bilateral dealings with Moscow remain his priority, not the EU's policy of delivering a peace deal in line with Ukrainian interests.
