Putin ready to build relations with Péter Magyar despite calling Hungary unfriendly country

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Moscow is ready to build relations with Hungary’s new government following the opposition Tisza Party’s parliamentary election victory led by Péter Magyar.

Speaking to the Vesti news service, he said future bilateral relations depend on how Budapest “understands its national interests.” “We are ready to build relations with the new government [of Hungary]. Everything depends on how this government understands its national interests,” he said, adding that Moscow wants to see “concrete actions.”

Earlier Monday, the Kremlin said it would not congratulate Hungary’s prime minister-elect Péter Magyar on his election victory following the parliamentary vote. “We don’t send congratulations to unfriendly countries. And Hungary is an unfriendly country, it supports sanctions against us,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in remarks to the Life news website.

Peskov added that Moscow had been in dialogue with outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

At today’s press conference, Péter Magyar said Russia posed a security risk—not the Russian people, but their leaders. During the election campaign, he said he was prepared for new cooperation with Russia.

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