Kremlin says transcript of Putin-Orban call shows Hungarian prime minister as pragmatic and effective politician
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a transcript of a conversation between Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban, published by Bloomberg, shows the Hungarian prime minister “from a very pragmatic and effective standpoint.”
Bloomberg reported that Orban told Putin during an October 2025 call that he was ready to do a great deal to help settle the war in Ukraine and to organize a Russia-U.S. summit in Budapest, and that on any issue where he could be useful, he was at Putin’s service.
Bloomberg also reported that Orban compared himself during the call to a “mouse” helping a “lion” — a reference to a popular Hungarian children’s story based on an Aesop fable, in which a mouse frees a lion from a net after the lion had spared its life. The remark made Putin laugh, according to the transcript.
Peskov said there was nothing in the published conversation “that could drive a wedge between Russia and Hungary.”
“On the contrary: the information published by Bloomberg actually shows Orban from a very pragmatic and effective standpoint. He really is a very effective politician, an effective head of state, who is protecting the interests of his own country — not Russia, not America, but his own country, Hungary. The material that has been published demonstrates that. I would even take it as material in support of Orban,” Peskov said, as quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax.
He added that many forces in Europe would not want Orban to win the election again, and that those forces, in his view, believe publishing such material could damage the Hungarian prime minister.
In March, the Financial Times reported that the Kremlin had launched an information campaign aimed at helping Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party win the parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12, 2026. Russia’s Presidential Administration had approved a plan designed to boost Fidesz’s ratings, according to the FT. The Kremlin dismissed the report as false.
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