Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, arrived in Moscow on Friday, marking a rare visit to Russia by a Western leader that quickly sparked discord within the European Union.
This visit follows closely on the heels of his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
A spokesperson for Orban, Zoltan Kovacs, stated that the Hungarian leader was in Moscow “as part of his peace mission.”
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Russian president’s spokesman, indicated that President Vladimir V. Putin would discuss Ukraine “among other things” with Orban, “who has flown in for a working visit to Moscow.”
Orban, who has frequently been a source of frustration in Europe due to his far-right politics and affinity for authoritarians like Putin, has expressed his desire to foster peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
However, Ukrainian leaders have dismissed the idea of negotiations with Russia, asserting that Putin would only aim for their capitulation.
This trip marks the first instance of a European Union leader visiting Russia for an official meeting with Putin since Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer did so in April 2022, during the early months of the Ukraine invasion.
Also, it is Orban’s first meeting with Putin since their encounter at an international summit in Beijing in October 2023.
The timing of Orban’s visit is particularly contentious as Hungary recently assumed the European Union’s rotating presidency.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany mentioned that he was unaware of Orban’s trip in advance and emphasized that Orban was not representing the European Union.
The EU’s Chief Diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles, clarified that Orban’s visit to Moscow “takes place, exclusively, in the framework of the bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia,” and that Orban was “thus not representing” the European Union “in any form.”
As news of Orban’s trip spread on Thursday — only being announced after his arrival in Moscow on Friday — other EU officials were quick to criticize it.
President of the European Council, Charles Michel, stated, “The EU rotating presidency has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU,” and reiterated that “Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.”
Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland also expressed his disapproval directly to Orban via social media, saying, “The rumours about your visit to Moscow cannot be true, or can they?”
Most Western leaders have avoided meetings with Putin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, aiming to isolate him on the global stage.
However, leaders outside the West have not hesitated to engage with the Russian president. For instance, China’s leader Xi Jinping met with Putin this week in Kazakhstan, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Moscow next week.
