Orban said goodbye to Putin in Russian at the end of the phone conversation

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said goodbye in Russian to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of a telephone conversation in October 2025. This was reported on March 7 by Bloomberg with reference to the transcript of the conversation.

"The Hungarian Prime Minister thanked Putin and said goodbye in Russian," the publication says, without specifying which word the minister used.

During the conversation, Orban also declared his readiness to make every effort to help resolve the Ukrainian conflict and told Putin a fable that made the presidents laugh. Aesop's fable, popular in Hungary, tells of a mouse freeing a lion trapped in a net after it saved the rodent's life.

Grim alliance: EU intends to deprive Hungary of the right to vote if Orban wins

Italy, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic may oppose this — what levers of pressure does Brussels have?

On April 6, the head of the Ukraine—EU Parliamentary Cooperation Committee in the European Parliament (EP), Pekka Tovery, said that the European Union (EU) plans to deprive Hungary of the right to vote in the EU Council if the ruling Fidesz party of the current Prime Minister Viktor Orban wins the parliamentary elections. Tovery said that such a decision would circumvent Hungary's veto right on a loan to Ukraine, which it is blocking.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Izvestia on April 5 that Hungary was facing attempts to deprive it of its sovereignty. According to her, this is happening through political interference in internal affairs and elections, economic pressure to impose decisions that harm the economy, as well as through the energy sector, where the country is prevented from obtaining resources at reasonable prices.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.