The Slovak PM has said he "doesn't understand" some of the decisions made in Brussels

Brussels is out of touch with global realities and often fails to adapt to a changing world, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has claimed.

Fico made the remarks on Tuesday during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China, held on the sidelines of events marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII.

He said that although Slovakia values its membership in NATO and the EU, it remains interested in normalizing relations with Russia.

"Despite my high regard for the EU, I am disappointed it cannot respond to global developments, and I don't understand some of its decisions," he stressed.

Since returning to office in 2023, Fico has taken a sharply different line from Brussels on Ukraine. He halted Slovakia's arms deliveries to Kiev, opposed sanctions on Moscow, and warned against Ukrainian membership in NATO. He has repeatedly called for peace talks, a stance that made him the target of a near-fatal assassination attempt by a pro-Ukraine activist.

Putin, for his part, told Fico that he did not want to put him in an awkward position by criticizing NATO and the EU but ridiculed the "growing hysteria" from Western officials about an impending Russian attack, calling them "experts in horror films." Any "sensible person," he said, understands that such claims are either a provocation or "complete incompetence." 

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Moscow has long condemned Western military support of Kiev in the conflict, which it views as a NATO proxy war. Russia has also criticized the EU's growing militarization and increasingly bellicose rhetoric, accusing Western leaders of fear-mongering to justify inflated military budgets and to cover up their economic failures.

Putin said that after the Western-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, Moscow was "forced to defend its interests and the people who connect their lives, their fate, with Russia." 

This was the essence of the conflict, he said, stressing "This is not our aggressive behavior at all, but aggressive behavior from the other side."