Russia’s Putin Meets Hungary’s Orban in Beijing

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban became the first European Union premier to meet with President Vladimir Putin since an international warrant was issued against the Russian leader over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Orban met Putin Tuesday in Beijing, where both leaders are attending the Belt and Road Initiative forum hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The leaders discussed cooperation on gas, oil and nuclear energy, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. Orban’s meeting is likely to prompt a backlash from his EU and North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies as well as Ukraine, which have sought to isolate Putin since Russia invaded Hungary’s eastern neighbor last year. The Hungarian premier has acted to undermine that unity by sealing energy deals with Russia, trying to limit western aid to Ukraine, delaying NATO expansion and publicly calling on the EU to scrap economic sanctions imposed on Moscow. -------- Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Subscribe to Bloomberg Originals: Bloomberg Quicktake brings you global social video spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. Connect with us on… YouTube: Breaking News on YouTube: @BloombergQuicktakeNow Twitter: Facebook: Instagram: