Hungary’s Viktor Orban visits Russia for meeting with Vladimir Putin

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met President Vladimir V. Putin in the Kremlin on Friday, an unprecedented visit to Russia by a Western leader and one that has briefly sowed discord in the ECU union.

Mr Orban met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital Kiev for the next three days. And that was the same year that Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the ECU union, leading other ECU leaders to summarily claim that Mr Orbán was no longer representing them in Moscow.

A spokesman for Mr Orban, Zoltán Kovacs, said the Hungarian leader was in Moscow “as part of his peacekeeping mission”.

However, Mr Putin, in his televised comments to Mr Orban at their meeting, indicated he was not backing down from the broad demands he made from Ukraine’s previous presentation. On generation, Mr Putin said Russia could agree to a ceasefire only if Ukraine withdrew troops from four areas Moscow claims and gave up its aspirations to join NATO.

“Our position on the possibility of a peace deal is described there,” Mr Putin told Mr Orban, referring to these demands. “Of course, I am ready to discuss and tell you about various nuances.”

Mr Orban, who has long been the subject of EU ire for his far-right politics and involvement with authoritarians like Mr Putin, has said he wants to promote smoother dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainian leaders have unwanted talks with Russia because they say Mr Putin only wants their country’s surrender.

It was the first generation when an EU leader visited Russia for a formal meeting with Mr Putin in the first months after the invasion of Ukraine. The Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, visited in April 2022.

It was Mr Orban’s second meeting with Mr Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He last met the Russian president in Beijing in October, and told him that Hungary “has never wanted to confront Russia” and “has always been eager to expand contacts.”

It seemed that taking his advice was a small matter. It was not announced, and Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry S. Peskov told Russian television that Hungary had offered to consult Mr Orban just two days before he arrived here.

Mr Orban, who has won four consecutive elections by portraying his domestic rivals as beholden to Brussels and anti-war, is happy to challenge his nominal allies in the ECU union and NATO, which will hold a summit in Washington . Then year.

He identifies himself as former President Donald J. Trump is cast as a maverick, a lone protector of national interests regardless of the opinion of the established order.

“I am very grateful,” Mr. Orban told Mr. Putin on Friday, according to a Russian translation of his remarks broadcast on television, “that you agreed to receive me even in such difficult circumstances.”

His move to Moscow, in defiance of the ECU union’s policy of ignoring Mr Putin, is in line with a long trend of Hungarian disdain for Europe’s meaningful efforts to build a joint foreign policy.

In recent months, Mr. Orban’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, has reached out several times through Brussels to autocratic countries gathered at the Arms Field. He has traveled to Belarus, which is subject to punitive EU sanctions, and to Iran, which has family members also exempted from Europe and may be subject to sanctions.

Mr Szijjarto posted a photo of himself on the red carpet in front of a Hungarian Breeze Drive airplane at a Moscow airport on Friday. “Reaching Moscow. Another step for peace!” They said.

Instead of opaque national comments calling for a “timely cease-fire” during his visit to Kiev on Tuesday, Mr. Orbán offered dissent on how he envisions a possible peace in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia do not appear to have agreed to hold direct spontaneous talks until the spring of 2022, when several weeks of intense talks deteriorated as both sides jumped onto the battlefield. Although they occasionally work on specific issues such as prisoner exchanges; Each side spared 75 prisoners of war on 31 May over the next few months without such exchanges.

The Ukrainian Ministry of International Affairs left a comment on Friday reiterating that Mr Orban traveled to Moscow “without approval or coordination with Ukraine”.

Russia was not invited to a recent summit in Switzerland aimed at drumming up support for Ukraine’s negotiating position, but Mr Zelensky has raised the possibility that the Kremlin could be invited to a then-world summit hosted by Kiev.

Mr Orban’s visit was doubly provocative because this year Hungary held the rotating presidency of the ECU union, a largely clerical role with negligible real power, but one that would keep the country in the spotlight for six months. Is.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was not aware of Mr Orban’s walk-in-walk and said he was not representing the EU.

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the bloc’s managing diplomat, issued a comment saying Mr. Orbán’s “visit to Moscow takes place, in particular, in the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia.”

Hungary’s top minister is “as such” not representing the ECU union in any way, Mr Borrell said.

As word spread about Mr Orban’s quietly planned visit on Thursday – it was not announced until his plane landed in Moscow on Friday – other EU officials quickly condemned it.

“The rotating presidency of the EU has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU,” said Charles Michel, president of the ECU Council, the body representing the heads of member states’ presidencies.

“The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim,” Mr Michel said, writing on social media. “No discussion about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.”

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk addressed a social media post to Mr Orbán today. “The rumors about your trip to Moscow cannot be true,” Mr. Tusk wrote, “or can they?”

Poland’s previous ruling party, Legislation and Justice, a nationalist force that for years stood shoulder to shoulder with Mr Orban in a battle with Brussels over immigration and alternative issues, has also grown frustrated with Hungary’s reach to the Kremlin.

In an interview on Thursday, Poland’s former conservative top minister, Mateusz Morawiecki expressed concern over Mr Orban’s cozy coverage of Russia and what he described as Hungary’s “peace mantra”.

He said it had not encouraged Law and Justice to add an antiquated Hungarian-led coalition called Patriots for Europe to the EU Parliament, despite shared views on a number of alternative issues.

“Ukraine is a Rubicon, a kind of red line for us,” Mr. Morawiecki said. “Russia must not win this war.”

Mr Morawiecki, who traveled to Kiev to ask for help just days after the Russian invasion, said he was inspired by Mr Orban’s late visit to Ukraine this year, a sign that the Hungarian leader was willing to let go of his past hostility. Were controlling. To President Zelensky. Poland desires a smooth Hungarian settlement, he said, but not one consistent with Ukraine’s defeat.

“Who doesn’t want peace?” They said. “But the quickest way to end a war is to lose it,” he said, stressing that this was not an option that anyone except Russia wanted for Ukraine.

Nearly all Western leaders have avoided meetings with Mr Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine, in part to isolate Mr Putin internationally.

Outside the West, on the other hand, leaders have not been shy about interacting with their Russian counterparts: China’s President Xi Jinping met Mr Putin in Kazakhstan this year, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Republic of India in Moscow that year. Is going to take advice.

Christopher F Schuetz And Mark Santora Contributed to the reporting.