Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary met with President Vladimir V. Putin on the Kremlin on Friday, a uncommon journey to Russia by a Western chief and one which shortly stirred discord within the European Union.
Mr. Orban made the journey three days after visiting President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. And it was the identical week that Hungary took over the European Union’s rotating presidency, prompting different European leaders to shortly declare that Mr. Orban was not representing them in Moscow.
A spokesman for Mr. Orban, Zoltan Kovacs, mentioned the Hungarian chief was in Moscow “as a part of his peace mission.”
However Mr. Putin, in his televised feedback to Mr. Orban initially of their assembly, signaled he was not budging from the sweeping calls for he manufactured from Ukraine final month. On the time, Mr. Putin mentioned Russia could be prepared for a cease-fire provided that Ukraine withdrew troops from the 4 areas that Moscow has claimed as its personal and dropped its aspirations to affix NATO.
“Our positions on the potential for a peace settlement are described there,” Mr. Putin instructed Mr. Orban, referring to these calls for. “I’m, after all, prepared to debate and let you know about numerous nuances.”
Mr. Orban, lengthy an object of European chagrin for his embrace of far-right politics and of authoritarians like Mr. Putin, has mentioned he desires to advertise peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainian leaders have rejected talks with Russia as a result of they are saying that Mr. Putin would solely search their nation’s capitulation.
It was the primary time {that a} European Union chief had visited Russia for an official assembly with Mr. Putin for the reason that first months of the Ukraine invasion. The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, made the journey in April 2022.
It was Mr. Orban’s second assembly with Mr. Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He final met the Russian chief in October in Beijing, telling him that Hungary “by no means wished to confront Russia” and “has at all times been desperate to develop contacts.”
Mr. Orban, who has received 4 elections in a row by casting his home rivals as traitors and warmongers beholden to Brussels, delights in defying his nominal allies within the European Union and NATO, which will probably be holding a summit assembly in Washington subsequent week.
He presents himself as a maverick within the mildew of former President Donald J. Trump, a go-it-alone defender of nationwide pursuits heedless of firm opinion.
“I’m very grateful,” Mr. Orban instructed Mr. Putin on Friday, in keeping with a Russian translation of his televised remarks, “that you just agreed to obtain me, even in such tough situations.”
His journey to Moscow in defiance of the European Union’s coverage of shunning Mr. Putin suits into a protracted sample of Hungarian disdain for Europe’s fitful efforts to forge a joint overseas coverage.
In latest months, Mr. Orban’s overseas minister, Peter Szijjarto, has repeatedly reached out to autocratic nations saved at arm’s size by Brussels. He has traveled to Belarus, which has been slapped with punishing European sanctions, and Iran, which additionally has frosty relations with Europe and can also be below sanctions.
Mr. Szjijjarto on Friday posted {a photograph} of himself on a pink carpet at an airport in Moscow in entrance of a Hungarian Air Power aircraft. “Arriving in Moscow. One other step for peace!” he mentioned.
Aside from obscure public remarks calling for a “time-bounded cease-fire” throughout his go to on Tuesday to Kyiv, Mr. Orban has shed no mild on how he envisages attainable peace in Ukraine.
Mr. Orban’s journey was doubly provocative as a result of Hungary this week took over the European Union’s rotating presidency, a largely clerical position with little actual energy however one which places the nation holding the six-month place within the highlight.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany mentioned that he had not recognized about Mr. Orban’s journey prematurely and famous that he was not representing the European Union.
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the bloc’s high diplomat, issued an announcement saying that Mr. Orban’s “go to to Moscow takes place, completely, within the framework of the bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia.”
The Hungarian prime minister is “thus not representing” the European Union “in any kind,” Mr. Borrell added.
As phrase unfold on Thursday about Mr. Orban’s quietly deliberate journey — it was not introduced till after his aircraft landed in Moscow on Friday — different European Union officers have been fast to sentence it.
“The EU rotating presidency has no mandate to interact with Russia on behalf of the EU,” mentioned Charles Michel, president of the European Council, the physique representing the heads of presidency of the member states.
“The European Council is obvious: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the sufferer,” Mr. Michel mentioned, writing on social media. “No discussions about Ukraine can happen with out Ukraine.”
Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland addressed a social media publish on to Mr. Orban. “The rumours about your go to to Moscow can’t be true,” Mr. Tusk wrote, “or can they?”
Poland’s earlier governing occasion, Legislation and Justice, a nationalist pressure that for years stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Mr. Orban in his battles with Brussels over immigration and different points, has additionally been dismayed by Hungary’s outreach to the Kremlin.
In an interview on Thursday, Poland’s former conservative prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, voiced alarm at Mr. Orban’s pleasant coverage towards Russia and what he described as Hungary’s “peace mantra.”
This, he mentioned had made Legislation and Justice reluctant to affix a brand new Hungarian-led alliance within the European Parliament referred to as Patriots for Europe, regardless of shared views on many different points.
“Ukraine is a Rubicon, a form of pink line for us,” Mr. Morawiecki mentioned. “Russia should not win this struggle.”
Mr. Morawiecki, who traveled to Kyiv to point out help simply days after the Russian invasion, mentioned he was inspired by Mr. Orban’s belated go to to Ukraine this week as an indication that the Hungarian chief was moderating his earlier hostility to President Zelensky. Poland, he mentioned, shares Hungary’s need for a peace settlement however not one based mostly on Ukrainian defeat.
“Who doesn’t need peace?” he mentioned. “However the quickest strategy to finish a struggle is to lose it,” he added, insisting that this was not an possibility anybody wished for Ukraine besides Russia.
Virtually all Western leaders have shunned conferences with Mr. Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine, searching for as a substitute to isolate Mr. Putin on the world stage.
Exterior the West, nonetheless, leaders haven’t been shy about sitting down with their Russian counterpart: Xi Jinping, China’s chief, met with Mr. Putin this week in Kazakhstan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is scheduled to go to Moscow subsequent week.
Christopher F. Schuetze and Marc Santora contributed reporting.
