On Friday, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, an unannounced visit that provoked a strong backlash from senior EU officials.
“Is there anyone who feels safer after Victor Orbán’s exchange with Vladimir Putin on the ‘post-war European security architecture’?,” Tusk asked in a message posted on X.
“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” he added.
Orbán’s position
Hungary began its six-month presidency of the EU Council on July 1.
After his Friday meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Orbán remarked that the positions of Russia and Ukraine on ending the war remain very distant.
He pointed to the importance of diplomacy and communication channels in achieving peace, asserting Hungary's unique position in Europe as one of the few countries able to speak to both sides.
Putin said he saw Orbán's visit as an effort to "resume dialogue" and give it "additional impetus."
Backlash
The visit drew criticism from several European leaders, with European Council President Charles Michel and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell both reiterated that Hungary's EU presidency does not have a mandate to establish contacts with Russia on behalf of the EU. The outgoing NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, also criticized Orbán's trip to Moscow.
According to Dmytro Tuzhansky, a Ukrainian political scientist and head of the Central European Strategy Institute, Putin benefited from the visit.
Tuzhansky noted that Orban did not make a “full” visit to Moscow, but only stopped in the Russian capital on his way to Azerbaijan for a summit of the Organization of Turkic States, in which Hungary has observer status.
He said that in the past, such a visit would have been humiliating for the Russian leader, but now it demonstrates Putin's readiness to engage with Western leaders willing to discuss peace.
“Now, Putin is taking advantage of this visit with calls for peace,” he added.
Tuzhansky further pointed out that Orbán requested the visit to present himself as a mediator, signaling to European populists whom he wants to attract to a new political group in the European Parliament.
Despite his intentions, "Orbán is not and has not been a mediator,” the expert said.
