Brussels warns against any rapprochement with Russia on behalf of the EU amid indications that Orbán will meet Putin

Indications that Hungarian national-populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, four days after taking over the six-month presidency of the EU Council, have sparked an earthquake of rejection in the EU club. Orbán, the most Kremlin-friendly European leader, visited Ukraine on Monday on his first official trip of the presidency. There he urged President Volodymyr Zelensky to call a ceasefire to start peace talks, an argument that many see behind a demand for the surrender of kyiv, the invaded country. Now, according to the Hungarian press, he is expected to meet the Russian autocrat, who launched the full-scale war on Ukraine more than two years ago, to discuss the cessation of hostilities. Orbán’s government has refused to confirm the visit.

European Council President Charles Michel warned on Thursday, without mentioning Hungary, that the rotating Council presidency has no mandate to engage in dialogue with Russia. “The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. There can be no debate on Ukraine without Ukraine,” has said on social media. Orbán has not informed Michel or the Council of his trip, according to EU sources. The Council president has tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to contact Orbán to confirm the information provided by Szabolcs Panyi of VSquare. According to the same sources, Michel “would have strongly advised against the visit” if the Hungarian prime minister had consulted him.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has addressed Orbán himself on social media. “The rumours about your visit to Moscow cannot be true, Viktor Orbán. Or can they?” has launched in X (formerly Twitter). In Brussels diplomatic circles, the signs of the Hungarian national populist meeting with Putin in Russia have also sparked harsh criticism. If it takes place, it would be the first visit by a European leader to Russia since April 2022, when it was the Austrian Karl Nehammer, also considered close to Moscow. Orbán, however, has already met Putin since the start of the invasion, in China last October, and his foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, has met his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on numerous occasions.

Orbán will travel to Azerbaijan on Friday for a meeting of the Organisation of Turkic States, the international spokesman for the Hungarian government, Zoltán Kovács, explained to a group of correspondents this Thursday in Budapest, on a trip organised by the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council to which EL PAÍS has been invited. The Hungarian official in charge of the organisation of the Hungarian presidency of the Executive has also refused to give details about the upcoming talks with Russia.

Orbán, Kovács said, will use his six-month European presidency “in a political way” to push through a number of priorities. And “peace” is the first, he insisted. “The prime minister is very committed to this and has been since the beginning of the war,” the spokesman said. “That position will not change because he is in charge of the presidency. Being an “honest broker” does not mean abandoning our own position,” he added.

For the next six months, Hungary is in charge of leading negotiations between member states on the pending issues and regulations on the table as the rotating presidency of the EU Council – as Spain did in the last half of 2023 – although with the European Commission already leaving, there will not be many pending laws to be negotiated.

Kovács acknowledged that Orbán had come to Budapest to meet Zelensky as Hungarian prime minister, and not on a European mandate. He had, however, reported the content of the talks with the Ukrainian president to the Council, he said. Kovács said that Orbán would also speak to Putin, but refused to say when.

Hungary is seen as a Kremlin submarine in the EU. It constantly torpedoes and delays sanctions against Russia (which it finally supports, they are on their 14th package) and keeps blocked more than 6 billion euros from the European Peace Facility used to reimburse member states for their shipments to Ukraine. Orbán and his government oppose the shipment of military equipment to kyiv.

Follow all the international information at Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.

_