Putin on quest to turn EU sanctions

President Vladimir Putin will step up efforts to weaken support for economic sanctions against Russia in his first visit to the EU since Donald Trump became US president with a pledge to improve relations with the Kremlin leader.

Putin will arrive in Budapest on Thursday for talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Russia’s strongest supporters in the EU and the first European head of government to back Trump.

Trump’s rise, Britain’s looming exit from the EU and pivotal elections in Germany and France in 2017 present Putin with his best chance yet to overturn the penalties.

The EU extended sanctions in December 2016 until July 31 2017 over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has flared into renewed fighting.

“Putin will try to draw Orban one step closer to the red line” in enlisting his support to block further EU economic sanctions the next time they’re discussed, Andras Deak, a Budapest-based researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, said.

Putin imposed a ban on imports of some food products from the EU in retaliation for the sanctions against Russian staterun banks, energy and defence industries. The measures have caused tens of billions of dollars in losses for exporters on both sides. The sanctions were ineffective and had caused “a lot of grief and damage” to Hungarian companies, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.