Viktor Orbán arrives in Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin despite outcry

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Viktor Orbán arrived in Moscow on Friday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, defying European leaders who had warned the Hungarian prime minister that he did not represent them.

Orbán, whose country took over the rotating EU presidency on Monday, arrived in Russia just days after a surprise trip to kyiv – his first since Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in an apparent effort to broker peace between the two sides.

“As part of his peace mission, Viktor Orbán has arrived in Moscow,” his spokesman told the official MTI news agency. “The prime minister is meeting with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.”

It is the first visit by an EU leader to Russia since Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Moscow in April 2022 in a failed attempt to convince Putin to end the war.

But en route to Moscow, Orbán acknowledged that he did not represent the EU, after several leaders warned on Thursday that he had no mandate to speak on their behalf.

“Hungary does not have the mandate to negotiate on behalf of the European Union. I do not claim to do so. But I can look into the situation,” he told state media on Friday, adding that he would inform the bloc’s leaders of any opening of peace talks, which he admitted were “still far away.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday that Orbán’s visit to Moscow was “exclusively” bilateral, as the Hungarian leader “has not received any mandate… to go to Moscow” and “does not represent the EU in any way.”

European Council President Charles Michel criticized Orbán on Thursday, saying in a message on X that the rotating EU presidency had no legitimacy to speak on behalf of the bloc. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed disbelief: “The rumors about your visit to Moscow can’t be true… or can they?”

An EU diplomat told the Financial Times that “with such a meeting, the Hungarian presidency ends before it has really begun” and that “the scepticism of EU member states was unfortunately justified – it is all about promoting Budapest’s interests.”

Despite his recent overture to kyiv, which included three hours of talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Orbán has consistently adopted a pro-Russian stance since 2022, delaying EU sanctions against Moscow and opposing aid to kyiv.

Orbán was also the first Western leader to meet Putin at a conference in China last October, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for war crimes allegedly committed by the Russian leader.

After the meeting, Putin defended Orbán against the many Western critics. “They attack him not because he has a different position from other European leaders, but because he has the courage to defend the interests of his people,” Putin said. “Many European politicians today lack this courage and envy it.”

Daniel Hegedűs, a policy analyst at the German Marshall Fund think tank, said the first few days had already shown what the EU could expect from Hungary’s six-month presidency: “disruption, instability and trolling.”

“The visit to Moscow is presented as an attempt by Orbán to mediate in Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, but no one considers this effort to be sincere or legitimate,” Hegedűs said.

“Orbán could use and abuse the rotating EU presidency to sow confusion and cause significant symbolic damage to EU foreign policy while advancing the interests of Russia and other illiberal rivals of the West.”