Europe

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Vladimir Putin during a phone call in October that he was willing to go to great lengths to assist the Russian president, including to help settle the war in Ukraine by hosting a summit in Budapest.

“Yesterday our friendship rose to such a high level that I can help in any way,” Orban said, according to a Hungarian government transcript of the call reviewed by Bloomberg. “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.”

To underline the point, Orban recalled a children’s story he said was popular in Hungary. The Aesop fable involves a mouse freeing a lion caught in a net after it had earlier spared the rodent’s life. The remark drew a laugh from Putin, the transcript shows. Spokespeople for Orban and Putin didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

The relationship between Orban’s government and the Kremlin is coming under increasing scrutiny as Hungarians prepare to vote in an election this weekend, with opinion polls indicating that Putin’s closest ally in the European Union could be ousted after 16 years. Hungary opposes aid to Ukraine, while Orban’s campaign is portraying President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as an enemy of the state.

The brief call between Orban and Putin, which took place around noon on Oct. 17 and whose content is being reported for the first time, provides further evidence to suggest that helping Russia is a policy that comes from the very top of government.

The two men spent much of the discussion sharing their appreciation for each other, and also for Donald Trump. Both had spoken to the US president the previous day about the potential summit in Budapest, which ultimately didn’t happen.

Trump has endorsed Orban and US Vice President JD Vance will visit Budapest Tuesday as the election campaign enters the final stretch.

In the call, Orban described the friendship with Putin as having strengthened since it first began in the Russian leader’s home city of St. Petersburg in 2009.

“The more friends we make, the more possibilities we have to resist our adversaries,” said Orban, according to the transcript, which was corroborated by a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing confidential talks. The Hungarian premier lamented that he and Putin hadn’t been able to meet regularly in person as they had before the Covid pandemic.

Putin was then effusive over Hungary’s “independent and flexible” stance on his war against Ukraine. “It is incomprehensible to us that such a balanced, middle-ground position only generates counter arguments,” said the Russian president, according to the transcript. An anti-Ukraine campaign poster in Budapest.Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

Some European leaders hit out at Hungary last week after a consortium of investigative news outlets, including The Insider and VSquare, published a leaked recording of a call between Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, involving removing a Russian billionaire’s sister from the EU’s sanctions list. Szijjarto dismissed the story as the work of foreign intelligence services tapping his calls and said that it’s no secret that he opposes the EU’s sanctions policy.

That report followed one in the Washington Post, citing a European security official, that Szijjarto would regularly brief Lavrov on private discussions in Brussels between EU foreign ministers.

Revelations of just how closely Hungary keeps Russia informed and works to advance its interests comes at a critical time.

Opposition leader Peter Magyar, a former insider in Hungary’s ruling elite, has vowed to steer Hungary back toward the European mainstream and away from Moscow should he prevail in Sunday’s election. Orban, meanwhile, has made anti-Ukraine messages the central theme of his campaign.

His government is obstructing a critical €90 billion ($104 billion) loan to Kyiv and last month authorities seized currency that was being transferred from Austria to Ukraine overland via Hungary. The country also continues to import Russian energy while the EU phases it out.

Orban and Putin spoke by phone as recently as March 3, where the Russian leader hailed “Hungary’s principled stance” on Ukraine, according to a Kremlin transcript. They also exchanged views on progress in agreements reached when Orban visited Putin in Moscow on Nov. 28. Orban noted then that it was their 14th meeting.

The main purpose of the October call, according to the transcript reviewed by Bloomberg, was to discuss the possibility of Hungary hosting a US-Russia meeting that had been floated at the time.

“Orban expressed willingness to lay the groundwork for holding a possible Russia–United States summit in Budapest,” according to an official readout released by the Kremlin after the call, which was in Hungarian and Russian, and lasted less than 15 minutes with translation.

According to the transcript of the call reviewed by Bloomberg, Putin walked Orban through the steps that could lead to the event, starting with a potential meeting between Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio before deciding the “appropriate level of representation.”

The president suggested involving Szijjarto in the discussions, according to the transcript. The Rubio-Lavrov meeting didn’t happen in the end.

Hungary was one of the few, “perhaps the only,” European country that was an acceptable venue for the meeting under discussion, Putin said, adding that he agreed with Trump’s assessment that it was an appropriate location because Orban was a friend to both presidents.

The summit in Budapest didn’t take place as the US and Russia failed to agree on Moscow’s maximalist demands over Ukraine. It would have followed a meeting between Trump and Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, in August.

Both Orban and Putin were full of praise for Trump. The Hungarian premier, who has been feted by the US administration and the MAGA movement, said he admired the American president’s “tornado”-style business approach.

“As they say, he moves forward like a tank,” Putin said. “It works for him, and you can only feel joy about it.” He praised Trump’s ability to deal with various crises at the same time, including in the Middle East. The US president had recently concluded a peace agreement in Gaza. More recently, Moscow has criticized the US for attacking Iran.

The call began with Orban wishing Putin a happy birthday after he’d turned 73 earlier in October. It ended with the two leaders inquiring about their respective health.

“I exercise, I also ski. I know you play football,” the Russian president said, according to the transcript. “I try,” Orban replied, to the laughter of both men. The Hungarian premier then thanked Putin and said good-bye in Russian.