Hungary, NATO member and now the ceremonial head of the EU, is due to meet Russia at the highest level on Friday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, Radio Free Europe and the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as neither confirming nor denying the visit. State news agency RIA cited Peskov as saying that Putin had a “busy schedule” on Friday, about which the Kremlin would inform reporters later.
It would be the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Putin and Orban have met inside Russia. Orban, who has maintained a closer relationship to Moscow than other EU leaders since the invasion, visited Russia in 2022 without meeting Putin, and has met him in other countries.
