Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is expected to travel to Moscow on Friday 28 November for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by a large delegation in which energy and nuclear issues are set to dominate the agenda.
The visit has been arranged without prior notification to Hungary’s partners in NATO and the European Union, and is believed not to have been coordinated with Washington. One European diplomatic source suggested the trip is in line with Orbán’s practice of holding annual face-to-face meetings with Putin.
Diplomatic sources quoted by VSquare say Orbán will be accompanied by a “large delegation of dozens of people”, including Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, Construction and Transport Minister János Lázár and national security adviser Marcell Bíró. The size and composition of the group underline the breadth of issues expected to be discussed, from pipeline supplies to nuclear fuel and downstream investments in the Balkans.
The visit comes shortly after the United States granted Hungary a one-year exemption from American sanctions on Russian oil and gas purchases, following Orbán’s recent talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington. Under that arrangement, Hungary can continue importing Russian energy while committing to buy around $600 million of US liquefied natural gas and deepen co-operation on nuclear fuel supply.
VSquare’s sources state that energy security is the primary focus of the Moscow agenda. Hungary remains heavily dependent on Russian supplies, receiving the bulk of its gas and oil from Russia even as most EU member states have sought to curtail such imports since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Budapest has also signalled that it will challenge in court the EU’s plan to phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027.
Nuclear issues are expected to form a second pillar of the talks. VSquare reports that discussions will include fuel supply for Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant, where US company Westinghouse is to join the Russian-designed facility as a fuel provider under recently announced transatlantic arrangements. While the Paks II expansion is being built by Russia’s Rosatom under a long-standing agreement, Budapest has moved to diversify fuel sources for existing reactors, creating a more complex energy relationship with both Moscow and Washington.
Another key topic, according to VSquare, will be a potential deal involving the Hungarian oil and gas group MOL and Serbia’s NIS refinery. MOL is reported to be examining the purchase of Gazprom’s minority stake in NIS. Reducing the Russian ownership share below 50% could help NIS – and indirectly MOL – limit exposure to US sanctions that have affected Russian-owned assets in Serbia, including crude supplies via Croatia.
The Kremlin has so far been cautious in its public comments. Putin said on Thursday that Russia and Hungary were discussing a possible visit, while his spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated that details would be announced once arrangements were finalised. Budapest has not formally confirmed the timing, but multiple media outlets in the region report that the meeting is scheduled for Friday.
VSquare also reports that Orbán may present his Moscow trip as part of a broader diplomatic initiative linked to US–Russian talks on ending the war in Ukraine. According to the outlet, the Hungarian leader is likely to describe the visit as a step towards reviving the idea of a “peace summit” in Budapest involving Trump and Putin – a concept that briefly surfaced earlier this autumn before a planned Trump–Putin meeting in Budapest was cancelled.
No details have emerged on whether Ukrainian representatives would be involved in any future Budapest format. EU leaders have repeatedly stated that no discussions about Ukraine’s future can take place without Kyiv’s participation, and earlier this year stressed that Hungary’s rotating EU Council presidency does not confer a mandate to negotiate with Moscow on behalf of the bloc.
Orbán last met Putin in October 2023 at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, where he echoed Russian framing by referring to the invasion as a ‘military operation’, avoiding the word ‘war’. Since then, Hungary has continued to approve successive EU sanctions packages while pressing for energy-related exemptions and resisting joint military support measures for Kyiv.
The Moscow visit, if it proceeds on Friday as reported, will take place against the backdrop of ongoing US–Russian exchanges over a possible settlement to the war, and of continuing EU efforts to reduce reliance on Russian energy.
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