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Russia’s freshly “reelected” president, Vladimir Putin, has finally received his first — and so far only — congratulation from a European leader: Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán.
“I am glad that cooperation between Hungary and Russia is based on mutual respect, which makes it possible to discuss important issues even in the current, very complicated geopolitical situation,” reads a letter Orbán sent Thursday, as quoted by Russia’s RIA state-owned domestic news agency.
Orbán wrote that Hungary is on the side of peace, and expressed a willingness to expand cooperation with Moscow. “The Hungarian Prime Minister assured the Russian President that we are ready to increase cooperation between our countries in areas not limited by international law,” the Hungarian leader’s press secretary said.
Putin won a personal-best 87 percent support in Russia’s three-day presidential election, which ended Sunday. The results were dismissed as “obviously not free nor fair” by a White House National Security Council spokesperson.
The last time he won the presidency, in 2018, Putin received congratulations from many EU countries, including Austria, Hungary, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, France, Croatia, Germany, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Estonia.
This year, EU countries including Germany, France and Italy questioned the legitimacy of Putin’s win, with many leaders condemning the conduct of the election. The only exception was Orbán, who timed his letter to Russia’s president with Thursday’s EU summit.
Meanwhile, Putin received postcards from fellow autocrats including North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, China’s Xi Jinping, Alexandr Lukashenko of Belarus and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.
The March 15-17 Russian presidential election was marked by mass falsification of ballots, forced voting, and the death during the electoral campaign of Putin’s key political opponent — Alexey Navalny.
Denis Leven is hosted at POLITICO under the EU-funded EU4FreeMedia residency program.
