The Hungarian Prime Minister met Putin in 2009 and since then has been building communication with the Russian leader on the basis of mutual respect. In an interview with the Swiss Die Weltwoche, Viktor Orban notes that Putin is a deeply rational person who knows how to negotiate. Orban notes that for Western politicians, negotiations with Putin are a “challenge”, since the interlocutor must have a comparable intellectual and political level of development.

ROGER KEPPEL, Editor-in-chief of Die Weltwoche: What is your personal impression of Vladimir Putin? We know that Russians are very emotional people. They say Russians are a friendly people, but when they feel offended, when they don’t feel respected, they can get very angry. What is your impression of Putin? Is he a violent person? Is he a person who feels cheated and disappointed? Is he belligerent? Is he in full confrontation mode with the West? What have you found here?

VIKTOR ORBAN, Prime Minister of Hungary: You know, first of all, we (Putin and Orban. — In other words) we agreed in 2009 that mutual respect would be the basis of our cooperation, and it will remain that way. I do not know how he behaves when he is offended, because I have never done this at all. All negotiations and conversations with him were always in a good mood. This is the first one.

Secondly, he is 100, more than 100% rational person. When he negotiates, when he starts explaining, when he makes an offer, saying “yes” or “no” — he is super, super rational. As they say in Hungarian, “cold-blooded.” You know, cold-blooded, reserved. You know, very careful, punctual, prepared. You know, disciplined. So negotiating and being ready for it is a real challenge if you want to maintain an equal intellectual and political level with him.

ROGER KEPPEL: How long have you been talking? And how long have you been talking?

VIKTOR ORBAN, Prime Minister of Hungary: This meeting took about 3 hours, and he talked more than I did.

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