It is time to lift European Union sanctions against Russia, Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban said today in an interview on public radio.

Orban said the EU would have to adapt to a new era as Donald Trump returns to the White House, and would have to create a relationship with Russia that is “free of sanctions.”

The Hungarian prime minister also argued that the sanctions imposed by the United States government on his chief of staff, Andal Rogan, only succeeded in strengthening the latter’s position.

The US earlier this month imposed sanctions on Rogan, a Hungarian government official and Orban’s main collaborator, for alleged corruption.