Hungary's prime minister sought to bring down the temperature on spiraling tensions between his government and the United States, declaring Friday that the U.S. is Hungary's “friend” despite sanctions Washington imposed on a Budapest-based Russian bank.
In an interview on state radio, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the International Investment Bank, a Russian-controlled financial institution which U.S. officials have argued could serve as a conduit for Russian espionage, “could have played a serious role in developing Central European economies.”
