Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Friday to shore up Hungary’s energy supplies and discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine, writes CNN.

Having spurned chances to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels, Hungary was facing a violent economic shock after the Trump administration last month imposed sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil producers. Before the sanctions were announced, Orbán had warned that, without energy imports from Russia, Hungary’s economy would be brought “to its knees”.

But Orbán, a hard-right populist and a darling of the MAGA movement, was spared that shock after US President Donald Trump granted Hungary a one-year exemption from the sanctions, saying it had been “difficult” for his ally to wean the country off Russian oil since it is landlocked.

“We recently travelled to Washington to secure Hungary’s exemption from the American sanctions on Russian energy: we succeeded. Now we must take the next step, guaranteeing that deliveries to Hungary continue without interruption,” Orbán wrote on social media Friday. “This is why I am going to Russia today: to make sure Hungary’s energy supply remains secure and affordable this winter and in the year ahead”, he added.

Although Trump, explaining why he was considering granting Hungary an exemption, said it had been “very difficult for him (Orbán) to get the oil and gas from other areas” since “they don’t have ports,” analysts have disputed this reasoning.