Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban confirmed in an interview on the plane flying back from Moscow that the meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was organized in secret, without informing EU allies, contradicting earlier reports that preparations were made in advance.

The visit by Orban, who heads Hungary’s rotating presidency until the end of December, drew rebukes from EU leaders and will likely be a topic at next week’s Nato summit in Washington. So will be the opinion piece published in Newsweek on the same day, where Hungary’s leader blames the military alliance for seeking conflict with Russia.

In the interview with Roger Köppel, the editor-in-chief of Swiss weekly magazine Weltwoche, Orban explained how he kept the meeting under wraps to avoid surveillance by "the big guys", likely referring to the United States, some European powers, or even China. He had asked his foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, to contact his Russian colleague secretly immediately after Orban’s first visit to war-torn Ukraine to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy ended on July 3.

The press leaked the story after the Hungarian delegation requested permission to fly over Poland, he noted.

In their coverage of the 20-minute interview, Hungary's independent media criticized Köppel for asking soft questions without challenging Orban’s pro-Russian stance or addressing crimes by the Russian leader. Köppel was the only foreign journalist travelling with the Hungarian delegation on the way from Moscow to Azerbaijan for the meeting of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) in Shusha between July 5-6.

Köppel kicked off the interview by asking Orban how it feels to negotiate with a leader who controls 6,500 nuclear warheads. Hungary’s 60-year-old leader responded that it was special and described Russia as a great empire, recalling his friendly meetings with the Russian president.

Orban said he was proud of his friendship with Putin, whom he has met 14 times since taking power in 2010. Analysts recall that Orban was highly critical of the Russian leader when in opposition, but that changed completely after the 2009 meeting in Saint Petersburg.

Since the start of the war, he has refrained from calling the invasion of Ukraine an act of aggression or naming Putin as an aggressor and has failed to condemn the Bucha massacre.

The Hungarian leader boasted that his close ties to the Russian leader served as an asset in promoting talks between the two parties in the conflict. However, he falsely claimed that he is the only Western leader to have engaged in talks with Vladimir Putin since the war, according to foreign policy expert Botond Feledy, who sees the visit as an attempt by Orban to present himself as a global player and a potential dealmaker. The Hungarian leader could claim credit for any future agreement on a ceasefire or the start of peace talks for pushing his "peace agenda" from the start, he adds.

 

"My goal was to open the channels of direct communication and start a dialogue on the shortest road to peace. Mission accomplished! To be continued on Monday," Orban tweeted after the meeting in Moscow.

When asked about specific proposals, Orban recalled that during their three-hour negotiation, he had asked Putin about various peace proposals and the possibility of a ceasefire and Russia’s plans for Europe’s security architecture. According to the Hungarian leader, Putin had envisioned a clear strategy for the latter but dismissed the reality of any peace plan or that of a ceasefire.

Orban also admits he intends to use the EU presidency politically, similar to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, rather than the usual bureaucratic approach by Brussels.

He also hinted that he has more surprises up his sleeve and asked his interviewer to follow the news on Monday morning. According to 444.hu, the Hungarian government’s Dassault Falcon 7X aircraft was on its way from Budapest to Beijing, set to land in the Chinese capital on Monday morning. Orban is possibly on board the government plane, it adds.

After midnight CET, Viktor Orban posted on social media that he had arrived in Beijing.

EU leaders distanced themselves from Orban’s visit to Moscow. As liberal hvg.hu recalls in its regular foreign press review, the prime minister has shown the middle finger to EU members with the visit.

According to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the visit was solely in the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia and not the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Borrell also said that Hungary has not received any mandate from the EU Council to advance relations with OTS as the presidency does not entail responsibilities for the EU's external representation.

A growing number of European leaders now hold the view that it would have been worth taking the EU presidency away from the Hungarian government, as it is already causing serious damage to the EU's common interests, its prestige, and its seriousness, former MEP and state secretary of the foreign ministry Istvan Szentivanyi posted on social media.

In related news, Hungary’s foreign ministry on Friday cancelled the meeting with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock set for Monday.

The German foreign ministry added that the meeting "would have been important given Prime Minister Orban's surprise and uncoordinated trip to Moscow".

The Hungarian foreign ministry told 444.hu that there had been a change in Szijjarto's calendar, which is why they had requested rescheduling the meeting.