The war in Ukraine may have strengthened Western alliances in Europe, but not in all cases. 

The big outlier is the Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who won't supply weapons to Kyiv and won't let them transit his country.

There have also been other developments. Viktor Orban has gone on record stating his approval of Putin's actions. 

So why does Hungary's government think Putin has made Russia great again?  And what about those rule of law issues with Brussels?

Viktor Orban has gone on record praising Putin for his actions

But things may not be so crystal clear after all.

As far back as March, the prime minister declared, the answer to the question of which side Hungary is on is that Hungary is on Hungary's side.  

Hungary was among the first countries to immediately call for a ceasefire and peace talks.

 They believe that it is the only way actually to try to sort out that conflict. They believe that each and every NATO member, state and country regarding the war is always representing its own interests. 

Not taking anything away from the assistance that Hungary has provided to Ukrainian refugees, which has been substantial, 

but looking at Hungary’s actions, like refusing point blank to give Ukraine any weapons or allowing NATO to transship weapons through Hungary, Moscow must have been delighted with that.

What really counts for Ukraine is that, as a neighbouring country 

with a substantial 1500 Hungarian minority in the neighbourhood, any weapons shipment, or any participation in supplies would make them, as well as Hungary, a target.

 Neighbouring countries of Ukraine can become by accident or by intent, parts of the conflict if they are not careful enough. Hungary's position has always been very clear about weapons shipments and it stands, they stand for peace.

Hungary has been welcoming refugees from Ukraine

Hungary was among the first to condemn the aggression and has repeatedly been asking for immediate troop withdrawal and cessation of the armed conflict.

The President of Hungary visited Ukraine a couple of days ago and has been completely and fully explicit about the nature of the war and the nature of the aggression in Ukraine. 

But the suggestion that Ukraine should enter into peace talks may seem quite preposterous. 

Why should Ukraine sit around at peace talks and surrender territory to a hostile invader that's been bombing and destroying its towns and cities and murdering its people? Why should it sit around with peace talks?

There's another way out of the conflict which is for Russia to get its forces out of Ukraine. 

Forces that it should never have brought in in the first place.

But what kind of peace would Moscow sign with Ukraine while huge numbers of Russian troops are occupying vast areas of their country? 

Outnumbered on the battlefield Ukraine would have had no choice but to effectively negotiate its own surrender.

Additionally, according to the media reports, Hungary is not in favour of sanction policies. 

Do they want to cement the situation to Moscow's advantage? 

They believe that the bad political decisions, including the sanction policies, actually, especially on energy, are not calming the tension and are not a way out of the conflict. They rather contribute to the escalation. 

Hungary has been explicit on, the sanction policies and about Hungary's political stance on the issue. 

There have been reports that Viktor Orban is particularly close to Vladimir Putin. Hungary and Russia are strategic partners, in the sense that Hungary is dependent on Russia for its energy requirements. 

On Russian gas by 65%, and oil by more than 80%, so this kind of lopsided dependence might explain their closeness to Russia.

This graph shows how much Hungary is dependent on Russia

Hungary knows its place in international relations. 

Especially from a military or security perspective, Hungary is a small country and the room for manoeuvre, and Hungary’s political tools at our hands are very limited. 

Perhaps because of the missing infrastructural investments on behalf of Western European countries and the European Union, Hungary’s dependence on energy supplies is lopsided.  

However, just four years after Putin seized Crimea, and fueled a war in the Donbas region, Viktor Orban praised the Russian leader, saying in 2018, 

it needs to be recognized that Putin has made his country great again and that Russia is once again a player on the world stage. 

What's so great about a country that launches an illegal invasion, cracks down increasingly on human rights, and murders its political opponents at home and abroad? What's great about that?

Hungary insisted that the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill be removed from an EU sanctions list despite his active promotion and support for the war. Hungary maintained that targeting church personnel was crossing the line. 

But also what about Russian diplomats? Hungary could have targeted Russian diplomats in protest at Moscow's aggression, unlike other EU countries, who kicked out some 400 of them. Was Hungary scared of Moscow’s reaction?

Russia's Patriarch Kirill has been supportive of Putin's actions

Hungary also had four months to ratify Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO. Hungary has been at odds with Brussels for some years over rule of law issues, among them what they see as 

Hungary’s excessive control of the media and your lack of attitude to corruption surrounding the disbursement of EU funds.

The LGBTQ community has faced hostility from the Hungarian government

A lot of Hungary’s government policies have been condemned pretty much unanimously not just by human rights groups, but the UN Human Rights Office, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the US State Department.

Hungary's actions are helping Russia and hurting Ukraine, but are they?

0 Comments