Putin Plans to Meet Trump in Budapest. How Will He Get There?

“Next time in Moscow?” President Vladimir Putin requested in English, turning to U.S. counterpart Donald Trump as the 2 leaders addressed a room of officers and reporters after their August summit in Alaska.

Instead, the 2 leaders have agreed to fulfill in Budapest, Hungary, in a brand new try to barter an finish to Russia’s practically four-year invasion of Ukraine.

The alternative of venue instantly set off questions on how Putin, who’s sanctioned by the West and wished by the International Criminal Court on warfare crimes fees, would attain the central European nation.

To attain Budapest, he must fly over the airspace of his ally Belarus after which Poland or Slovakia — each European Union and NATO members — a doubtlessly dangerous route given the present political tensions and each nations’ proximity to Ukraine. 

Romania is one other attainable choice, however additionally it is a NATO and EU member.

Putin’s flight route is “of course, still unclear,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday.

“For now, there is the will of the presidents to hold such a meeting. But first, the matter will be worked on by Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary of State [Marco] Rubio,” Peskov stated.

The assembly will come over two months after their summit in Alaska failed to interrupt the diplomatic deadlock over the warfare in Ukraine. Trump has voiced growing frustration with Putin and weighed elevated navy help to Kyiv since then.

According to the Kremlin, Trump proposed the concept of holding the assembly in Budapest, which Putin “immediately” supported.

Putin has not visited Europe since launching 2021, when he and then-U.S. President Joe Biden met in Geneva.

He has been below an arrest warrant from the ICC for the unlawful deportations of Ukrainian youngsters since 2023, one thing that has considerably curtailed his worldwide journey. Russia itself is just not a member of the ICC.

Hungary has introduced its withdrawal from the ICC however is theoretically nonetheless a member till June 2026.

That is just not essentially a dealbreaker. ICC member Mongolia refrained from detaining Putin when he visited the nation in 2024. The nation stated its failure to arrest the Russian chief was as a consequence of “a position of energy dependency” on Moscow.

Hungary’s overseas minister stated Friday that his nation would be sure that Putin can enter and “hold successful talks” with the U.S. regardless of the ICC arrest warrant.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “expressed readiness to provide the conditions” for the Budapest summit, the Kremlin said. 

The authoritarian prime minister beforehand known as Budapest the “only place in Europe today where such a meeting can be held” due to what he described as Hungary’s “consistent” stance for peace.

The European Union welcomed the proposed assembly, a spokesperson said at a briefing on Friday, including that Putin is topic to an asset freeze, not a journey ban.

Switzerland, which isn’t within the EU or NATO, has up to now issued particular permits permitting sanctioned Russian officers to enter the nation. 

In July, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko and a delegation of senior officers attended the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Geneva. 

And Lavrov in 2024 attended a two-day OSCE summit in Switzerland, his first go to to the EU since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

AFP contributed reporting.