Orbán visits Putin in Moscow, causing outrage in the European Union

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is once again the free verse, the unruly student, of the European Union. The national-populist politician, the European leader closest to the Kremlin, arrived in Moscow on Friday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. His visit, the first by a European leader since Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine was consolidated, has generated a storm of rejection in the community club. After landing in the Russian capital, he assured that he was going “on a mission of peace”, the same words he used on his last official visit to the Kremlin on February 1, 2022, three weeks before the invasion of Ukraine. The EU has warned Orbán – who has just begun the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council and arrives in Moscow after a visit to kyiv where he called on President Volodymyr Zelensky to declare a ceasefire – that he has no European mandate to negotiate anything with Putin on behalf of the Union. Ukraine has strongly condemned the idea that the situation in its country is being addressed without its involvement.

The Russian president has deepened the European rift at the beginning of his meeting by presenting Orbán as the spokesman for the entire bloc despite it being a bilateral meeting. “I understand that you have come this time not only as an old partner of ours, but also as President of the EU Council,” Putin stressed, and Orbán himself continued in that vein: “This is not our first meeting in the last decade, it is already the eleventh, but it is more special than the previous ones. As you mentioned, Hungary has assumed the presidency of the EU Council,” the Central European leader stressed.

“The number of countries that are willing to engage in dialogue with both sides of the conflict is running out,” added Orbán, sitting next to Putin in one of the Kremlin halls, together with delegations from both countries. “Hungary will soon become the only country in Europe that will be able to talk to the whole world,” replied the Russian president at the start of their meeting.

Putin has insisted to Orbán on his latest “peace proposal”, which he made in mid-June before the Russian Foreign Ministry leadership and which includes as an essential condition the withdrawal of Kiev’s troops from the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia before starting a ceasefire; that is, the surrender and the cession of the territories. The Russian leader considers his maximum offer an acceptable measure, although he expressed his willingness to discuss “the nuances” with the Hungarian leader.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has criticised the meeting between Hungary and Russia. Kuleba said that the meeting in Moscow was not coordinated with the Ukrainian government. “We urge countries not to conduct talks on Ukraine without the participation of Kiev,” the foreign minister said, adding that Ukraine’s proposal is the only possible way to restore peace.

Orbán’s trip to Moscow and his meeting with Putin is further worsening Hungary’s already strained relations with the EU. The European Commission warned on Friday that the visit jeopardizes the trip to Budapest of the college of commissioners that was originally planned for this week and had been postponed to October, according to a community spokesperson. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has rejected the trip: “Appeasement will not stop Putin. Only unity and determination will pave the way to a comprehensive, fair and lasting peace in Ukraine,” she said on social media.

Several European leaders, including European Council President Charles Michel, tried unsuccessfully to contact Orbán on Thursday after a Hungarian investigative outlet reported the trip to Moscow. The Hungarian did, however, inform NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of his trip, the Norwegian confirmed on Friday.

“You cannot make peace from a comfortable armchair in Brussels,” the Hungarian said on his country’s radio early Friday morning. “Even if the rotating EU presidency does not have a 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 tool in taking the first steps towards peace. That is what our peace mission is about,” he added.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has asked on social media “in whose hands this tool is.” His German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, has declared on the same network: “The position of the EU is very clear: we condemn the Russian war of aggression. Ukraine can count on our support.” Estonian Prime Minister and future head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, has denounced that the Hungarian leader “is exploiting the EU presidency to show confusion.” “The EU is clearly united, alongside Ukraine and against Russian aggression,” she added.

Orbán’s international spokesman, Kovács, admitted to a group of European correspondents in Budapest on Thursday that the Hungarian leader has no European authority to negotiate on behalf of the 27 and that he had come to kyiv on a bilateral visit. However, the priority of the six-month Hungarian presidency is “peace,” he said. The Hungarian prime minister wants to present himself as a mediator, a bridge between Moscow, kyiv and Brussels.

The idea that the Hungarian leader would raise the subject of a possible peace negotiation with Putin, far removed from the scheme devised by Ukraine, has caused an earthquake in Brussels. “The EU’s position on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is reflected in many conclusions of the European Council. This position excludes official contacts between the EU and President Putin,” said the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, in a statement. “The Hungarian Prime Minister does not represent the EU in any way,” added the head of European diplomacy, who recalled that Putin has been indicted by the International Criminal Court and has an arrest warrant for the forced deportation of children from Russia to Ukraine.

Orbán, as usual, acts at will. The Hungarian leader and his government, which he has led for 14 years, have constantly torpedoed measures to support Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. Hungary has successively delayed 14 packages of sanctions against the Kremlin and its satellites since the start of the large-scale invasion and has blocked more than 6 billion euros from the European Peace Facility that serves to return to member states part of the funds they spend to send arms to Ukraine. Budapest refuses to send military equipment and has requested several exemptions to not participate in these schemes.

Orbán’s visit to Moscow comes just days before the leaders of NATO’s 32 allies, including the Hungarian prime minister himself, meet in Washington for the alliance’s annual summit.

Putin demands disarmament of Ukraine

This official trip is not Orbán’s first snub to Brussels. The Hungarian leader was the first European leader to meet Putin face-to-face since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president for war crimes. The two leaders met in Beijing in October 2023, where the Central European politician told Putin that “Hungary has never wanted to confront Russia.”

Orbán is putting pressure on Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire that the Kremlin will only accept if it benefits the Kremlin on the battlefield. “(Ukraine) must take measures that are irreversible and acceptable to Russia,” Putin said on Thursday. Among other steps, Moscow is demanding that Ukraine disarm. The presiden
t himself declared in mid-June that he is willing to consider a ceasefire if the Ukrainian armed forces completely withdraw from the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, and kyiv officially renounces its membership of NATO.

The Russian president is making a maximum-term ceasefire proposal that would leave Ukraine in a very vulnerable position, and he justifies it with his own account of the failed Russian offensive on Kiev in 2022. Putin said on Thursday that his armed forces stopped their offensive on the Ukrainian capital “at the request” of “Western partners,” but there were no reciprocal measures by the Zelensky government. The reality, as acknowledged within the Russian military, is that the invasion was very poorly planned by the high command and the attack on kyiv threatened to be a total disaster for the Kremlin, which retreated to better defensible positions.

“Therefore, we cannot go ahead and declare a ceasefire now in the hope that the other side will take further positive steps,” Putin said on the eve of his meeting with Orbán.

Orbán visited Putin in Moscow in February 2022 on what he also described as “a peace mission”. “I want to assure you that no leader of the European Union wants war or conflict. We are ready for a rational agreement,” the Hungarian leader said at the time as the Kremlin bought time to deploy its troops. Putin thanked him “for doing a lot” for relations with Russia and signed agreements to export cheap gas to Hungary. Just three weeks later, the Russian armed forces launched the largest offensive seen in Europe since World War II on Ukraine.

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