EPAHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow days ahead of talks with Russia over a US effort to end the war in Ukraine.
Orban is seen as one of Putin’s closest allies in Europe and has consistently angered his NATO and EU allies by weakening solidarity against Russia.
“We are aware of your balanced position on the situation in Ukraine,” Putin told Orban in comments carried by Russian state TV.
Putin also thanked the Hungarian Prime Minister for proposing Budapest as a possible venue for the Russia-US summit with President Donald Trump.
“Trump immediately said: ‘‘We have good relations with Hungary, you have good relations with Viktor, and I do too, so I suggest this option.’’ “We happily agreed, of course,” Putin said.
A planned Budapest “peace summit” was proposed last month, but was reportedly canceled because the Russian side refused to compromise on Putin’s maximalist demands for an end to the war.
The Hungarian leader’s Fidesz party faces parliamentary elections in April and polls suggest it could suffer defeat at the ballot box for the first time in 15 years.
Orban, who last visited Moscow in July 2024, has repeatedly challenged EU efforts to end European imports of Russian oil and gas.
He described Friday’s visit as the second step in a strategy to ensure Russian energy supplies to Slovakia and Serbia as well as Hungary this winter.
Earlier this month in Washington, he won an exemption from US sanctions on Russian fuel – but only as long as he remains in power.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Orban has claimed to be in favor of peace and last week told Hungarian state radio that “Europe has decided to go to war in Ukraine”.
He has strongly supported Trump’s 28-point peace plan to end the war and during the frantic diplomacy after it emerged, the Orbán government and pro-Orbán media have accused EU leaders of “warmongering” for trying to adapt the plan to account for Ukraine’s objections.
Orban and Putin were also joined at the Kremlin by prominent Russian officials, including Putin aide Yuri Ushakov, who is part of Russia’s negotiating team with the US.
In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen this week, the Hungarian leader called for immediate, unconditional peace talks for the EU to begin direct negotiations with the Kremlin. He stressed his opposition to further EU funding for Ukraine, and rejected the use of frozen Russian assets to finance Ukrainian defence.
Now, with little sign of Russia’s willingness to compromise on Ukraine, Orbán is focusing on Russian energy.
The deals they struck in Washington to buy American liquefied natural gas (LNG) and start buying American nuclear fuel mean Hungary will buy less of both from Russia, potentially upsetting its Russian hosts.
Orbán argues that without a deal with the US and Russia, heating prices will triple next month.
Hungary is under EU pressure to end all imports of Russian energy by 2027 and Moscow is likely to use any agreement to continue defying Brussels.
Hungary currently obtains over 80% of its oil and gas and 100% of its nuclear fuel from Russia, and total Hungarian trade contributes approximately $5 billion annually to the Russian budget.
A “deal” in Moscow does not look difficult.
Like Trump, Putin has made clear that he wants Orbán to win next April’s election, so another diplomatic “victory” for Orbán would serve the interests of both sides.
At the Valdai Forum in Sochi on September 29 this year, Putin personally praised Orbán, and saluted the “nationally oriented political forces” gaining ground in Europe.
“If these forces continue to strengthen in Europe, Europe will be reborn,” Putin said.
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