HR
NL
FR
JA
RO
RU
ES
TR
Unexpected message from Putin to PM Orbán: Trump, Kim, Erdogan, Castro, and Fico among recipients
Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister, also received New Year greetings from President Vladimir Putin. In doing so, he joined an exclusive group, as he was one of only two EU leaders to receive such a message from the Russian president, alongside Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico.
Heartwarming Trump-Putin conversations
According to the Kremlin press service cited by the Hungarian News Agency, Vladimir Putin spoke with his American counterpart, Donald Trump. The briefing noted that Putin had already sent Trump a Christmas greeting and that the two leaders exchanged warm personal messages during a telephone call on the occasion of Christmas and the New Year.
Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s foreign policy adviser, stated that the two presidents exchanged mutual wishes for happiness and prosperity for the peoples of Russia and the United States. The Kremlin press service also reported that Putin sent Christmas and New Year greetings to BRICS partner countries, including Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, as well as to many other states in the Global South and East, and to most members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
- Putin reassures Orbán after Hungarian PM seeks his take on pivotal EU decision about billions of euros
Kim Jong Un also greeted by Putin
Among European leaders, Putin sent New Year greetings, according to the Kremlin list, to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, as well as to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico. As a NATO leader, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also received greetings from Moscow.
Putin also extended his regards to Pope Leo XIV. In addition, he conveyed greetings to several former world leaders, including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and former Cuban leader Raúl Castro. The Russian president also sent good wishes to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Read also:
- Hungarian energy giant MOL emerges as frontrunner to buy Russian stake of Serbian oil company
Click for more Russia-related articles.
Birds of a feather flock together 😂
And yet, Dear Rádzs – they would not be ‘flocking together’ if The Western Elite were not such tyrannical bullies.
Many of these ‘birds of a feather’ represent countries that have historically either not been close or had poor relations with each other.
Henry Kissinger consistently maintained that one of highest goals of American foreign policy was to keep China and Russia from becoming friends.
He understood what the ninnies in charge of The West currently do not understand – that China and Russia closely aligned, as they now are, means that The West will be subordinate to them and their interests.
By the way – your use of English idioms is excellent!
There is the PRETEND AMERICAN posting his Kremlin screed again. Here is my great news for everyone. Russia’s oil revenues measured in Rubles have plunged 50% this year lopping almost 4% off of Russia’s GDP. But that doesn’t bother you does it Mouton because apparently you are “American” . The other great news is that Russians are dying in greater numbers in Ukraine than ever before. Happy New Year!
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62n922dnw7o
https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-economy-oil-price-worst-year-since-pandemic-2026-outlook-2025-12
Russia has become a vassal state of China completely dependent on the Chinese.
No, Dear Larry – estimates of the Russian Economy, by sources I trust, place the Russian GDP, excluding black market, at over 8 trillion dollars, per annum.
Russia has a formidable and exploding economy, helped by The West throwing out Russian oligarchs, over this war, who took their zillions home.
But, yes, China and Russia do trade a lot and, yes, Russia benefits greatly from it.
The Han Dynasty is returning.
For 2024, the Kremlin’s own line has been that Russia’s economy is growing by around 3% in real terms, off a GDP level of roughly $1.9–2.0 trillion (depending heavily on the exchange rate). In ruble terms, the figure is usually given as about 150–160 trillion rubles of nominal GDP for 2024. These numbers are official Russian statistics / forecasts (Rosstat), not independent estimates.
Whereas Russia’s GDP looks unexpectedly resilient on paper, the apparent strength is largely the result of a shift toward a war‑driven economy. Before the big shocks, in 2013 Russia’s GDP was about $2.3 trillion with growth around 1.8%. After Crimea and the first wave of sanctions, plus an oil price crash, GDP fell to roughly $1.4–1.5 trillion by 2015, with growth about –2.5%. From 2016–2019, growth limped along at around 0.5–2.5% a year, and the economy never regained its earlier dollar size because of a weaker ruble. COVID then hit in 2020, with GDP down about 3%, followed by a rebound in 2021 of around +4.5%, taking GDP to roughly $1.8 trillion (FX‑dependent).
After the full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia’s GDP officially fell by only around –2 to –2.5%, and then returned to positive growth (roughly 3%+ in 2023 and again in 2024), defying early predictions of collapse.
This headline growth is increasingly powered by massive state military spending—weapons, ammunition, uniforms, repairs, defense‑related construction—while many civilian sectors (health, education, consumer goods) are squeezed.
The economy is becoming more militarized and dependent on war‑related demand, which props up short‑term GDP figures but deepens structural problems: isolation from Western capital and technology, lower real incomes for much of the population, and a growing reliance on a narrow set of sanctioned, state‑controlled industries.
This post of artificial intelligence works on a little truth and unbelievable distortions – to make Russia look like a gas station with an oversized army.
The figures given on the Russian GDP are wildly inaccurate.
This is not an accident, but, but of a larger concerted effort to make Russia look evil, weak, and largely irrational to those who have only superficial knowledge of her, in the year 2026.
But, okay – let’s accept this financial misinformation for what it is, and say the following ….
If Russia is so weak, stupid, and evil, and if their economy is so anæmic, how come they are kicking NATO’s ass?
The answer?
They are not weak, stupid, and evil.
What is the truth?
They a power to contend with, something which The Western Elite will never do, unless we, The Westerners, stop taking seriously purposefully deceptive opinions about them, provided by the Western Elite.
This is just flipping one cartoon for another. Yes, Western pundits often talk nonsense about Russia, but replacing “Russia is weak, stupid, and evil” with “Russia is secretly kicking NATO’s ass and the Western Elites are hiding it” is the same lazy, black‑and‑white thinking.
GDP numbers aren’t some grand anti‑Russian psy‑op; they’re imperfect, arguable metrics that serious economists constantly debate for every country. And I was citing RUSSIAN sources.
https://www.akm.ru/eng/news/rosstat-estimated-russia-s-gdp-growth-in-2024-at-4-1/
You don’t have to buy every Western narrative to also accept basic, boring facts: Russia has strengths (energy, military industry, strategic depth) and serious weaknesses (demographics, tech dependence, sanctions, capital flight). “Power to contend with” doesn’t magically translate into “beating NATO” in some meta‑scoreboard.
And on the war: Russia isn’t fighting “NATO,” it’s fighting Ukraine, which is being armed and funded by NATO states.
That’s already a sign Russia isn’t some helpless basket case, however it’s also not proof of invincible brilliance. The front lines barely move for months at a time, both sides take horrific losses, and the Russian state is cannibalizing its own future (budget, human capital, emigration) to keep the war going.
That’s what a grinding, costly regional war between a big power and a heavily supported neighbor looks like, not some Hollywood victory lap over “The West.”.
If anything, the adult position is: stop swallowing cartoonish propaganda from either side—the “Russia is collapsing tomorrow” crowd and the “Russia is effortlessly crushing decadent NATO” crowd are both selling vibes, not analysis.
Nothing touches the heart more than tender greetings between mass murderering dictators and their stooges.
Please stop it with the wild hyperbole.
Go attend mass, chop some wood, play some golf and work out your tensions!
By the way – Happy New Year!
Yes Larry.
Oh, and by the way, did you forget, that Trump is a Sovijet spy?
Doesn’t that make the USA the vassal of Russia, and implicitly the vassal of China?
How does it feel, that your conspiracy theories don’t even need debunking, just writing them down is enough the make people laugh at you?
Putin and Kim Jong Un are mass murdering dictators. That is established fact. There is no conspiracy theory there. To call Orban a Russian stooge is not a conspiracy theory but something based on a long list of observations. You can start by explaining why the 1956 memorial and the Nagy Imre memorial were taken away from the front of the parliament and put in places where no one can easily see them. Work from that point looking at everything Orban has done such as obstructing Swedish and Finnish accesion into NATO for almost two years and calling Orban a Russian stooge then becomes quite accurate.
Larry, You’re tiring !!! Shut your dirty mouth !!!
Oh, yes, Dear Márk – Trump is a Russian spy!
How could I have forgotten?
But, wait!
How could he be a Russian spy when he is actually Adolf Hitler; AND … more improbable yet – spends his time in Moscow brothels being peed upon?!?
Mouton is a PRETEND AMERICAN who spouts Kremlin propaganda. The most profitable export of Russia is not oil or gas but corruption. Putin buys individuals such as Gerhard Schroder and Orban and political parties such as Fidesz and the AfD. He directs flows of money making some people fabulously wealthy and in return they will do things that benefit Russian interests. Trump faced a series of bankruptcies of his businesses back in the 90s. American banks stopped lending money to him. Eventually he went to Deutsche Bank and then things start to get quite opaque. While it is not definitively proven Eric Trump is reported to have bragged about access to Russian money. A lot of Russian money went into Trump projects. That buys a lot of good will for Putin. See the Reuters investigation attached and anyone can easily do their own research. Mouton is quite rich mocking conspiracy theories when he ties everything in Hungary to “Operation Barbarosa” no less!
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/