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Hungarian PM thanks Putin for his assistance in countering pandemic

Viktor Orban stressed that 2021 turned out to be the most successful year in relations between Russia and Hungary for this challenging period

MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. Moscow helped Budapest cope with the two major challenges of last year - the spread of the coronavirus and the energy crisis, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Actually, we have been living through challenging times. However, 2021 turned out to be the most successful [year] in relations between our countries for this period. There were two major challenges, Russia assisted us in both cases," Orban said.

He specified that the first threat was related to the coronavirus pandemic, the second - with energy. "We thank you for the fact that as a result of cooperation with Russia in the vaccine field, 900,000 Hungarian citizens were vaccinated with your vaccine. I thank you with an open heart," the Hungarian prime minister said.

At the same time, Orban stated that both countries "are making excellent progress on the Paks [Nuclear Power Plant] project. "In addition, I have several more proposals for further enhancing cooperation in this domain," he said. "[These are] difficult times, but we spend them in very good company," he concluded.

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