Ryabkov told reporters: “The European Union countries and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are working to destroy everything. They have no interest in anything other than harming Russia, undermining our position, and making it difficult to solve the problems we face. This is the sole objective of the entire EU policy.”
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow expects the new Russian-American summit to provide an opportunity to move towards a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. Peskov, responding to a question about why Putin agreed to meet Trump in Budapest, said: “President Trump has a somewhat warm relationship with Orban, and President Putin has a very constructive relationship. This, of course, contributed greatly to the understanding developed during the last phone conversation.”
On Thursday evening, October 16, President Putin and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, held their eighth phone call of the year. According to Ushakov, the American president proposed the Hungarian capital, and the Russian president supported the idea. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that he ordered the formation of an organizing committee to prepare for the Budapest summit. He said this work started on Thursday evening.
