0956GMT//Putin says he won't stop war in Ukraine; Hungarian PM Orban heads to Moscow; judo allows Russians to compete under national flag

UKRAINE PEACE DEAL: Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Ukraine needed to retreat from all areas of Donbas before he would negotiate a peace deal. He also said that he wouldn't sign a peace deal with Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he considers to be an illegitimate leader. Putin's final point was that any peace deal for Ukraine would be negotiated with the US, not with Ukraine or Europe. Putin was talking at a press conference at the end of a summit of CSTO leaders in Bishkek. (COMMENT>> None of this is surprising. Putin feels in a strong position and has said that he is prepared to continue the war. He has long claimed that Zelensky is illegitimate because he hasn't faced an election since 2019. Finally, Putin has always seen the end of the war in Ukraine as being a US-Russia negotiation issue.)

KAZAKH-RUSSIAN BORDER QUEUES: Putin claimed at his press conference in Bishkek that he had personally ordered extra customs checks on lorries crossing into Russia from Kazakhstan, triggering massive queues. He said that Russia was losing "tens of billions of roubles" from false customs documents. (COMMENT>> This has been a contentious issue since the backlogs started in September. Pro-Ukraine news outlets claimed that the backlog was caused by Kazakhstan cracking down on "dual-use" products being imported into Russia from China across Kazakhstan. This never quite made sense, though. Why would Kazakhstan suddenly start cracking down on this profitable trade? Instead, Russian media have been reporting that customs officials in Russia were tightening checks to raise more income for the cash-strapped Kremlin. Putin appears to confirm this.)

ORBAN TO FLY TO MOSCOW: Viktor Orban said on Friday that he is flying to Moscow to talk with Putin about energy supplies. He also said that talking about the Ukraine peace process was "unlikely to be avoided." (COMMENT>> Orban is one of the only European leaders to talk to Putin. It is unlikely that he will be able to influence Putin, but it is another negotiation channel. Also, the optics are important. Every trip that Orban makes to Moscow helps to normalise relations with Russia. This is Orban's first trip to Moscow since summer 2024.)

SPORT REHABILITATION: The International Judo Federation on Thursday said that Russia could once again compete under its national flag, ditching its 'neutral' status, imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. (COMMENT>> More and more sports are readmitting Russia, including boxing and the Winter Paralympics. Judo, though, is important to the Kremlin, as it is a sport closely associated with Putin. He practices judo, or at least used to.)

IMPORTING AFGHAN WORKERS: The Kremlin is discussing importing thousands of workers from Afghanistan to work on its farms. Russian news agencies said that an Afghan delegation visiting Tartarstan had offered to send the migrant workers. (COMMENT>> The war in Ukraine has drained Russia's farms and factories of workers. Earlier this year, the Kremlin took Afghanistan off its terrorist list. Since then, it has worked to set up a new trade route through Afghanistan to India. It has been importing thousands of workers from North Korea. Now it appears that the scheme could be widened to include Afghans.)

POLISH CONSULATE CLOSED: Russia closed Poland's last consulate office in Irkutsk, Siberia, on Thursday as retaliation for the closure of its consulate in Gdansk. Poland closed the Russian consulate in Gdansk after accusing the Kremlin of organising sabotage attacks on its railway network. (COMMENT>> The low-grade sabotage attacks across Europe are part of the Kremlin's 'hybrid warfare' tactics.)