MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin received visiting Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto at the Kremlin Senate on Wednesday.

Hungary’s top diplomat has already met with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Putin-Szijjarto meeting comes amid energy problems facing the Balkans over Ukraine’s refusal to resume Russian oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline and against the backdrop of growing global prices because of the Middle East conflict. In addition, the issue of releasing Transcarpathian Hungarians who served in Ukraine from Russian the captivity is on the agenda.

On Tuesday, Putin discussed these matters in a phone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.