“We know your balanced position on the Ukrainian issue”
- Vladimir Putin said to Viktor Orbán at the beginning of their meeting in the Kremlin, then thanked him again for Budapest's willingness to host the peace talks - Putin also revealed that Trump had thrown Budapest in, saying that both he and Putin are on good terms with the Hungarian Prime Minister.
This is Viktor Orbán's fourth meeting with Putin since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Just before the general attack before 2022, the Hungarian Prime Minister traveled to the Kremlin on a"peace mission," in his own words (as we know, unsuccessfully), and then attempted the same thing as the rotating EU president in July 2024 (also unsuccessfully), without consulting his European partners.
It is not known whether the Hungarian Prime Minister had made any prior arrangements before his new, unexpected trip to Moscow."Outwardly" Orbán only confirmed at the last minute, right before the trip, that he was going to Moscow to meet the Russian president, and this was not even announced in Thursday's government briefing.
The Hungarian government delegation, which departed for Moscow with a transfer at dawn, arrived in the Russian capital after 11 a.m. Hungarian time:
From the airport they went straight to the Kremlin:
The Hungarian delegation includes Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Marcell Bíró, Orbán's chief national security advisor, as well as János Lázár (Orbán has already taken the construction minister, who has been little used in international relations, with him to Washington).
On the Russian side, Yuri Usakov (Putin's foreign policy advisor), Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Minister of Energy Alexander Novak were also there. The members of the delegation waited a long time for Putin and Orbán to arrive, while Szijjártó talked and laughed with Lavrov in the background, while Lázár spent most of the time pacing up and down.
After some waiting, Putin and Orbán finally entered, and with the handshake (it was interesting that Putin's bodyguard seemed to have moved slightly towards Orbán), the short, public part of the head of state-prime minister's meeting began.
Viktor Orbán said in advance that he must ensure in Moscow that Russian energy continues to come to Hungary - however, it is unclear what exactly could be on the energy agenda - in addition to oil and gas supplies, Paks 2 and MOL's Balkan plans could also be in focus.
The parties had already indicated in the few minutes of press briefing before the meeting that energy could indeed be a central topic. “Of course, we have very good cooperation in the energy sector. And there are issues and problems here that we need to discuss,” said Putin, to which Orbán responded by saying
“The basis of Hungary’s energy security is stable Russian energy supplies, past, present and future. We highly value the stability and predictability of Russian energy supplies. Hungary is interested in maintaining an energy dialogue with your country, and I would like to discuss this issue in detail today.”
Putin emphasized that bilateral relations are based on pragmatism.
“On certain issues, including international affairs, our views may sometimes differ. But in any case, we have created an atmosphere that allows us to speak frankly and discuss any issue”
- said the Russian president, adding that the Hungarian prime minister"has a balanced position on the Ukrainian issue."
