Viktor Orban makes a surprise visit to Putin in Moscow

Hungary’s right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was announced by Orban’s spokesman Bertalan Havasi. He confirmed a planned meeting with Putin. Despite Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Orban continues to maintain good relations with the Kremlin chief.

The Hungarian head of government staged the trip as a peace mission. “You cannot create peace from a comfortable armchair in Brussels,” Orban wrote on the online platform X before confirming his trip. “Even if the rotating EU Council Presidency has no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EU, we cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end. We will be an important instrument in taking the first steps towards peace.” Hungary took over the rotating EU Council Presidency a few days ago.

Criticism came from the EU itself. Orban had no mandate from Brussels for the trip, explained EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell. “Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visit to Moscow is taking place exclusively within the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia,” said the European Union’s foreign policy chief. The Council Presidency does not envisage any representation of the Union externally.

Viktor Orban visited Kyiv for the first time

Just on Tuesday, Orban visited Kiev – for the first time since the war began. There he called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider a ceasefire to enable negotiations. Relations between Kiev and Budapest are considered strained because Orban has repeatedly delayed aid for Ukraine and tried to prevent sanctions against Russia.

Hungary remains heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies, some of which flow through Ukraine despite the war. However, Kiev does not want to extend the gas transit contract, which expires at the end of the year.

Publicly, Zelensky left Orban’s proposal unanswered. There are currently no peace negotiations between Kiev and Moscow. Kiev has so far officially rejected a ceasefire before the withdrawal of Russian troops, but has recently stopped putting this condition at the forefront.

Both sides reject ceasefire without preconditions

Shortly afterwards, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin also rejected a ceasefire without preconditions. “We cannot allow the enemy to use this ceasefire to improve its situation, arm itself, replenish its army through forced mobilization and be ready to continue the armed conflict,” Putin said on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which was founded to deal with security issues, in the Kazakh capital Astana. The guns could only fall silent if Ukraine takes irreversible steps to de-escalate.

Russia recently demanded the complete withdrawal of Kiev troops from the eastern and southeastern Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia, which are claimed by Moscow, as a precondition for negotiations. Russian troops were never able to capture Zaporizhia during the war. They had to withdraw from Kherson after a Ukrainian counteroffensive in autumn 2022. The Russian military also only has partial control over the Donetsk region.

Orban was last in Moscow in September 2022, several months after the start of Russia’s war of aggression. At that time, however, he only attended the funeral of former Soviet party leader and President Mikhail Gorbachev. Orban had no direct contact with Putin at the time. The Russian leadership had assigned former President Dmitry Medvedev to the event. However, Orban and Putin met last autumn at the Silk Road Summit in Beijing.