0
0
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Hungarian government has become the most friendly member of NATO and the European Union.
Orban, a poster child for populism is not liberal in Europe, has seen the style of Russian President Vladimir Putin as an attractive alternative to Western European style democracy. The two men had held 13 meetings over the years – the latest occurred only a few weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Orban at that time refused talks about the towering war while emphasizing the importance of bonds near Budapest and Moscow.
Hungarian-Russian bonds in recent years have also developed in a way that is not owned. Hungarian which is trained in land depends on the supply of Russian energy, receiving
About 80 percent of the gas and more than 50 percent of the oil from Russia. Both countries also maintain important relations in the banking and tourism sectors.
Returning to the 2014 Crimea Aneforcement, Hungarian violations framed by Russia before the sovereignty of Ukraine as a problem outside of his jurisdiction. As Orban saw, Russia’s actions in Ukraine, a country that was not in NATO, did not involve the responsibility of Hungary as a member of the Western Alliance. He dealt with friction between NATO, Ukraine and Russia through the doctrine of Strategic Calm”. Budapest also stood firmly against the potential for the entry of Ukraine to NATO.
On the one hand, Hungary quickly condemned the invasion and did not veto several European Union sanctions against Moscow. The Hungarian government has also opened its eastern border to Ukrainian refugees who escaped conflict. In addition, the spread of NATO troops to the east side of the alliance through Hungary is another area where Budapest has worked with, rather than the efforts led by NATO to fight Russia.
On the other hand, the Orban government has opposed the European Union sanctions against Russian oil and gas, promised to block them and eventually make water blocks into the sanction package.
At the same time, Hungary also refused to suspend the expansion of the Paks nuclear generator, who was a supplier of Russian Nuclear Nuclear Power Rosatom. In addition, Budapest opposed the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and forced the EU not to approve the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriark Kirill.
The Russian media platform has focused on the orban opposition to the transfer of weapons to Ukraine to explain the internal gap of NATO since the eruption of the war.
Hungarian government balanced reaction to the Ukraine crisis “reflects the overall ideological position of Orban in the middle of the road between Brussels and Kremlin, as well as Hungarian economic position in the middle between European Union subsidies and Russian Fossil Fuel Sales”, John Feffer, Director of Foreign Policy at home Focus, tell Al Jazeera.
Hungary’s decision to play a relatively small role in supporting Ukraine has logically reduced the possibility of Budapest to be the target of Moscow’s retaliation in the future. Thus, avoiding great damage to Budapest-Moscow relations in the middle of this war has served the interests of the orban and its country, the analysts said.
But it still has a good relationship with the government of Putin after-February 24 has injured Hungarian positions in NATO and EU. Budapest perception has been too friendly Russia since the war broke out and even made fellow Hungary Hungarian-Republic of Czech, Poland and Slovakia.
The bond between [Hungarian and Russia] is being tested and Hungary’s prime minister seems to have succeeded in maintaining relations with Russia relatively intact despite pressure from European neighbors,” Theodore Karasik, a colleague for Russian and the Middle East affairs, “at the Jamestown Foundation, giving Know Al Jazeera.
