Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Friday, once again shunning efforts by his European Union partners to isolate Moscow over its invasion of neighboring Ukraine nearly four years ago.

The trip to Moscow is the second since last year for Orbán, who is widely considered Putin’s closest partner among all EU leaders. Hungary is one of only a few EU countries to continue importing large quantities of Russian fossil fuels, and Orbán has strongly opposed efforts by the bloc to wean its 27 member nations off Russian energy supplies.

“We have important areas of cooperation, and we haven’t given up on any area of that cooperation, no matter the external pressure,” Orbán said. “Russian energy forms the basis of Hungary’s ener

See Full Page