Last year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered Russian President Vladimir Putin any help he wanted, for example, in holding summits in Budapest dedicated to resolving the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported, citing a transcript of the telephone conversation. TASR informs about it according to a Reuters report.
- Orbán offered Putin help in solving the war in Ukraine.
- The content of the phone call has not been officially confirmed or published.
- Orbán maintains close relations with Putin despite the war.
- Putin praised Hungary as a suitable place for the summit.
A Hungarian government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the release of a transcript of the Oct. 17 phone call between the two leaders. Reuters reports that it could not verify the content of the transcript. The Kremlin did not immediately comment on the matter.
Orbán has been in power since 2010, and on April 12, parliamentary elections await him, in which it will be difficult to achieve re-election. Despite the war in Ukraine, the prime minister maintains good relations with Putin and maintains Hungary’s dependence on Russian oil and gas. In response to the recent dispute with Kyiv over the damaged Druzhba oil pipeline, he blocked a European Union loan to Ukraine.
I am available, said Orbán
The conversation between Orbán and Putin took place at a time when US President Donald Trump agreed to hold a second summit on the war in Ukraine in the Hungarian capital. In the phone call, Orbán called Putin a friend and recalled that their close relations date back to a meeting in St. Petersburg in 2009. “But yesterday our friendship reached such a high level that I can help in any way – in our Hungarian picture books there is a story in which the mouse helps the lion,” he told Putin, according to the transcript. “I’m ready to help at a moment’s notice … anything I can be of assistance in, I’m at your disposal,” he said, according to Bloomberg News.
Putin replied to Orbán that he highly values their relations and emphasized that Hungary would be “perhaps the only European country that is an acceptable place” for a possible meeting with Trump, writes Bloomberg News. Putin also said he appreciated the prime minister’s “independent and flexible” stance on the Ukraine crisis.
At the time, Hungary said it would ensure that Putin could enter its territory for a summit with the US president. An International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant has been issued for the Russian leader on suspicion of war crimes, specifically the illegal deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia. Therefore, he can be detained in countries that recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
