U.S. says it is 'concerned' about Hungary's relationship with Russia

By Boldizsar Gyori

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The United States is concerned about Hungary's relationship with Russia, and finds Prime Minister Viktor Orban's decision to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin "troubling", the U.S. Embassy in Budapest said on Friday.

Orban held a bilateral meeting with Putin on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. He is the only EU leader to attend the forum or to maintain close ties with Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

"The United States is concerned about Hungary’s relationship with Russia," U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Pressman said in a post on X: "Hungary's leader chooses to stand with a man whose forces are responsible for crimes against humanity in Ukraine, and alone among our Allies."

Hungary, which is also a NATO member, has opposed many EU initiatives to support Ukraine in resisting Moscow's forces and gets most of its crude oil and gas from Russia.

Orban told Putin during their meeting in Beijing that Hungary never wanted to oppose Russia and was trying to salvage bilateral contacts.

Following Orban's meeting, the ambassadors of NATO countries and of Sweden who are based in Budapest gathered to discuss their concerns about Hungary's growing rapprochement with Moscow, Radio Free Europe reported.

Orban's chief political aide Balazs Orban rejected the U.S. criticism in a post on X earlier this week, saying Hungary was "fed up" with the U.S. ambassador's "hypocrisy".

Relations between Budapest and Washington have soured in the past year because of Hungary's foot-dragging over the ratification of Sweden's NATO accession.

(This story has been corrected to delete an erroneous reference to Orban being the first EU leader to meet Putin since the Ukraine invasion in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Boldizsar Gyori, Editing by Alan Charlish and Gareth Jones)