Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest, Hungary, 30 October 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE / ALEXEY NIKOLSKY / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is to visit Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin on Friday in a move set to anger European Union officials, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday.
News of Orbán’s planned visit to the Russian capital was broken on Thursday afternoon by Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi, who noted that a Hungarian government plane likely carrying part of Orbán’s delegation had made a return trip from Budapest to Moscow on Thursday ahead of Friday’s reported visit.
The Guardian then cited a Hungarian government source who said that Orbán’s trip formed part of his attempts to “mediate between Russia and Ukraine” after Hungary took over the EU’s rotating presidency last week. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that he would be accompanied in Moscow by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, who has visited Russia at least five times since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Orbán’s reported visit to Moscow follows his surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday where he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider a ceasefire with Russia to “speed up” potential peace negotiations between the two countries.
RFE/RL cited an unnamed source who said that Orbán had not informed the EU of his plans to travel to Moscow and that the bloc would have “strongly advised against” such a visit had it been informed of it in advance.
European Council President Charles Michel condemned Orbán’s reported visit, writing on X that the EU’s rotating presidency, which Hungary will head for the next six months, has “no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU”.
“The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine”, Michel said.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo echoes Michel’s sentiments, calling reports of Orbán’s plans “disturbing” and saying his planned trip to Moscow would “undermine the interests of the European Union”.
Orbán will be the first senior EU official to meet with Vladimir Putin in Moscow since Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer travelled to the Russian capital in April 2022 for “tough” talks on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Orbán drew condemnation from Western officials in October after he reaffirmed Hungary’s “commitment to bilateral ties” with Russia during a meeting with Putin at a summit in Beijing. He last visited Moscow in September 2022 for the funeral of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, though he did not meet with Putin on that occasion.
While Orbán publicly condemned Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in 2022, he has since come to be known as Putin’s closest ally in the EU and has consistently opposed the bloc’s initiatives to send aid to Kyiv.