Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is visiting Moscow on Tuesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, in a visit that opposition parties have denounced as betraying the country’s interests.
Closest allies
Mr. Orban is one of the Kremlin’s closest allies inside the European Union. He has long been accused of undermining the 27-member bloc’s common foreign policy on Russia, Ukraine and China.
Before meeting the Russian leader. Mr Orban claimed to be on a „peace mission”.
„I would like to assure you that no EU leader wants war or conflict. We are ready for a rational agreement,” he said, France 24 reported.
The visit by Mr Orban will be seen by Putin supporters as a victory exposing divisions in the within the EU and NATO over Ukraine.
Also Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Ukraine where he will meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and hold a press conference against the backdrop of Moscow’s mobilization of 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders.
„As a friend and a democratic partner, the UK will continue to uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty in the face of those who seek to destroy it,” he wrote on Twitter.
Russian president
His diplomatic mission got off to a rocky start after the Russian president refused to reschedule their phone conversation, which had to be delayed on Monday night while Mr Johnson was grilled by British lawmakers about lockdown-busting parties.
Mr. Orban’s visit to Moscow is designed to boost his popularity at home ahead of elections in April.
Relations between Kyiv and Budapest soured over a 2017 language law that Hungary said discriminated against the ethnic Hungarian minority in the country’s west. Romanians have also chafed at the law but have chosen diplomatic channels to deal with the issue.
NATO-Ukraine Council
Since then, Budapest has blocked operations of the NATO-Ukraine Council, the primary forum for the military alliance to engage with Kyiv.
After Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, Mr. Orban opposed EU sanctions, although Budapest eventually agreed.
The Ukraine crisis has exposed the European Union’s dependence on Russian gas. It gets 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia and there have been calls to diversify its energy supply.
Gazprom
Hungary signed a 15-year-deal with Gazprom for gas supplies in September.
The new contract was seen as undermining Kyiv, because the delivery route would bypass Ukraine’s pipelines.
Unlike Romania and Poland which have welcomes additional NATO troops, the foreign ministry in Budapest said it wouldn’t host further alliance troops and wouldn’t increase aid to Ukraine.
The two leaders are scheduled to hold a press conference in Moscow later Tuesday.
U.S. reassures Romania of support amid concerns about Russia ‘aggression’ in region
