Russian President Vladimir Putin sent holiday greetings to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, according to the official Kremlin website, although Hungary has not been removed from a Kremlin list of countries classified as unfriendly
to Russia.
The list of political leaders who received good wishes from the Russian president does not include the leaders of the UK, Germany, the US, France, Japan or other state leaders unfriendly toward Russia.
Orbán is the only EU prime minister to have received such a letter from the Russian
president. The list includes, alongside Orbán, such heads of state and government and other persons as Pope Francis, Belarussian President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-Un.
Besides, former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder and former Cuban president Raul Castro also received personal greetings rom Putin.