Putin to meet Hungarian Premier Orban in Moscow on Friday

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Moscow later on Friday, the Kremlin confirmed.

"Yes, we can confirm," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency TASS in response to a question on the matter.

Earlier, Orban announced in a video statement on US social media company Facebook that he will visit the Russian capital later in the day, saying the goal of the upcoming talks is to "ensure Hungary's energy supply for the winter and next year, at an affordable price."

He also recalled that he visited Washington, DC earlier this month to get Hungary exempt from US sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

On Nov. 7, Orban told reporters at the White House that Hungary and the US are entering what he called a "golden age" of bilateral relations under President Donald Trump, who said he is considering issuing a waiver for Hungary to continue purchasing Russian oil without fear of facing secondary US sanctions.

"We're looking at it, because it's very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas. As you know, they don't have the advantage of having sea ... they don't have the ports," Trump said in response to a reporter's question on the issue.

Trump in October imposed US sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies — Rosneft and Lukoil — and 34 of their subsidiaries in a bid to ramp up pressure on Moscow as he seeks to broker a long-elusive peace deal that would end the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Orban has often criticized Brussels and calls for an ending to European funding for Ukraine. He supports a diplomatic solution to end the war, and has backed Trump's current peace proposal.

Budapest was supposed to host a US-Russia summit to discuss ending the fighting in Ukraine, but was called off.