Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico landed in Moscow on May 8 for the Victory Day celebrations - against Brussels' policy and against most European capitals. The plane's livery reads "Slovak Republic," and in his hands he's carrying wreaths to lay at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow.

Fico didn't arrive quietly. His statements in front of the cameras in Moscow were provocative, aimed directly at Brussels: "No nation feels what happened in that war as deeply as the Russian people." Translated: we in Slovakia know the history, and we won't let it be rewritten by those who paid the least for it.

The visit's programme is ambitious. Beyond the ceremonial laying of wreaths for the Red Army soldiers who liberated Slovakia and Czechoslovakia in 1944-45, talks with Vladimir Putin on economic and scientific-technical cooperation are also expected. An additional layer - according to sources, Fico is also carrying a message from Ukrainian President Zelensky to the Kremlin. What it says, nobody is saying.

For Brussels, this is a political disaster. An EU member, the prime minister of a NATO state, goes to Moscow precisely on May 9, and gets photographed next to Russian tanks. Hungary and Slovakia have been playing a dissident role in the European bloc for years, and Fico has no intention of switching lines. For the slim majority on the Old Continent, this reads as "the division of Europe" - but for a slice of Eastern European voters, it's a chance to hear someone speak the other way.

For the Balkan viewer, Fico opens the question our politicians keep avoiding. Where do we stand - with Brussels or with Moscow? Nowhere in the middle. The question comes whether we're ready or not. The era when the Balkans could build on both sides at once is over, and the only people who haven't accepted that yet are the ones who actually have to make the call. Fico we either condemn, or we follow. There is no third way left.