The almost decade-long hiatus in high-level meetings between Baltic presidents and Russia’s Vladimir Putin is set to end this week.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — home to sizable Russian-speaking minorities — have had an uneasy relationship with the Kremlin since communism collapsed. Putin’s annexation of Crimea from nearby Ukraine in 2014 and the ensuing military conflict further spooked a region that was once an unwilling part of the USSR and is now part of the European Union, the euro area and NATO.

Friendship won’t be blossoming any time soon — the three countries are among the staunchest backers of EU sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.

But a meeting Thursday in Moscow between Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and Putin marks a slight improvement in tone.

“I’d rather be at the table than on the menu,” she told a news conference this month.