Orbán: I knew before the war that something was wrong with Putin

On Tuesday in Berlin, at an event organised by the Cicero public affairs magazine and the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, the Hungarian Prime Minister recalled what the Russian President was like when he visited Moscow in February, before the outbreak of the war.

“I saw something was wrong with him. He didn’t say there was going to be a war, he didn’t say he was going to attack, but I saw trouble.” Among other things, Viktor Orbán said this on Tuesday in Berlin at an event for the Cicero public affairs magazine and the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, recalling what it was like when he visited Putin in Moscow in February, mfor.hu reports.

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“I asked the President of Russia what he thought about the Ukrainian army. He said that the Ukrainian army is a very strong army.” This is how Orbán began the conversation. Orbán continued that in the conversation Putin said that the Ukrainian army is a “well-equipped army, trained by Americans and British”. He also said that Putin told him that “the Ukrainians are getting information from the Americans.”

“And that country is a very strong country. And he made it clear that he will do everything he can to make sure that this country never joins NATO.” The Prime Minister then continued: “I saw something was wrong with him. He didn’t say there was going to be a war, he didn’t say he was going to attack, but I saw trouble.”

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As Orbán explained, he then went to NATO, where he reported that “there was trouble. Because time is not on our side, it is on the Russian side”. Finally, on the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, he said: “And then when it happened on the 24th, I just said that it was what we expected.”

Orbán also said that he believes the international debate is too focused on Putin, but he is not interested in Putin at all, Telex writes. “I am interested in Hungary and Europe and the consequences of the war for us”. Orbán also made it clear that the Hungarian government thinks about the war what the EU says: that it is an act of aggression, because Russia has violated international law.

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Source: mfor.hu, Telex