Hungary said preparations for a US-Russia summit in Budapest were “in full swing” on Friday and assured Russian president Vladimir Putin that it would not act on a warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban echoed US president Donald Trump’s prediction that the summit could take place in about a fortnight and claimed it would be a victory for his government’s “pro-peace” policy on the war in Ukraine.
It is a stance that critics at home and abroad – not least in Ukraine – regard as a craven refusal to stand up to the Kremlin, and they predict that he will use the summit to try to boost his sagging ratings in advance of parliamentary elections next spring.
Preparations are “in full swing,” Orban said on Friday after speaking by telephone to Putin. That call came a day after the populist Hungarian leader talked to Trump, and the US president announced plans to meet the Russian autocrat for the first time since an August summit in Alaska failed to deliver a breakthrough on Ukraine.
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“Sometimes, when it feels like you’ve been going against the flow of traffic on the highway, God sends you a signal that you are actually in the right lane,” Orban told Hungarian radio. “Budapest is basically the only place in Europe where such a summit can be held.”
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Since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Orban has repeatedly tried to block European Union initiatives to help Ukraine, while calling for a halt to economic sanctions against Moscow and refusing to end Hungary’s reliance on Russian energy.
He denies that this is spineless appeasement and describes it as a “pro-peace” approach to Europe’s biggest war since 1945, while denouncing all those who help Ukraine to defend itself as bloodthirsty warmongers.
Orban’s main target is the EU, which his nationalist government and state-controlled media have demonised during his 15 years in office, amid clashes over his hardline anti-immigration policy and his tightening of control over all levers of power in Hungary, where he has openly tried to build what he calls “illiberal democracy”.
“Everyone in the union is pro-war except us,” Orban told national radio. “If there is an agreement for peace, then the European war plans must be thrown out of the window and everything must be recalibrated.”
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Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto made clear that Hungary had no intention of acting on an ICC arrest warrant issued over Putin’s alleged role in the abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children during Russia’s all-out invasion.
“We will ensure that he enters Hungary, has successful negotiations here and then returns home,” he said. “There is no need for any kind of consultation with anyone; we are a sovereign country here. We will receive [Putin] with respect, host him, and provide the conditions for him to negotiate with the American president.”
Orban insisted that the Budapest summit “is not about us – it is about peace,” while also claiming that Hungary has “the advantage that [its] prime minister has been in office for a very long time ... We have always been loyal partners”.
As his ruling Fidesz party tries to make up ground in opinion polls on the opposition Tisza movement of Peter Magyar, Orban is portraying himself as a reliable pro-peace leader, and his rival as a pro-war loose cannon backed by the EU and Kyiv.
Orban is the clear preference of Trump and Putin, and the visit of the two strongmen is a striking pre-election gift to a leader critics call the “Viktator”.
