Bloomberg News exclusive: Orban Offered to Be ‘Mouse’ Helping Russian ‘Lion’ in Putin Call
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Vladimir Putin during a phone call in October that he was willing to go to great lengths to assist the Russian president
“Yesterday our friendship rose to such a high level that I can help in any way,” Orban said, according to a Hungarian government transcript of the call reviewed by Bloomberg. “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.”
“The more friends we make, the more possibilities we have to resist our adversaries.”
To underline the point, Orban recalled a children’s story he said was popular in Hungary. The Aesop fable involves a mouse freeing a lion caught in a net after it had earlier spared the rodent’s life. The remark drew a laugh from Putin, the transcript shows.
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