Do we really want to work with and help a pro-Russian country like Hungary?
Even before he in effect endorsed Hungary’s Viktor Orbán before a crucial parliamentary election, Marco Rubio’s itinerary for Europe promised to be provocative. After meeting US allies at the Munich Security Conference during a particularly tense moment in transatlantic relations, the US secretary of state departed for Slovakia and Hungary – the two EU states most dependent on Russian energy and sceptical of the bloc’s support for Ukraine.
In what bordered on an explicit political endorsement, Rubio told Orbán that relations between Hungary and the US had entered a “golden age” – and would stay like that for as long as Orban remains in power.
“If you face financial struggles, if you face things that are impediments to growth, if you face things that threaten the stability of your country, I know that President Trump will be very interested … to finding ways to provide assistance if that moment ever were to arise, and obviously with regards to finances and the like,” Rubio said.
The offer of financial support – and a nod toward extending Hungary’s exemption from sanctions on purchasing Russian oil and gas – came just two months before Orbán’s Fidesz party faces a punishing parliamentary election that marks the greatest threat to his control of Hungary in 16 years.
My mother was Hungarian. Hungarians are not pro Russian. But politics make for strange bed fellows. I think Hungary is against EU’s, Brussels’ overreach. Is that seen as pro Russian?
Where did you see that claim? Hungary had been very pro Russia at the West’s expense. We were thought to be in the wrong. Overreach was not the issue. Eastern power was the issue.
The Hungarian people are not pro-Russia. They remember the Russian occupation and the 1956 uprising against the Russians. The Russians put a brutal end to the uprising. Over 200,000 Hungarians with brains escaped the Russian army during the uprising fleeing West. Many of these Hungarian engineers came to American and worked at Westinghouse, General Electric, Bechtel, Department of Energy, CIA, and many universities like University of Pittsburgh, University of California, etc.
The current problem in Hungary is that the Orban’s autocratic government is pro-Russia. The Hungarians are stuck behind a Trump like autocratic PM Orban who has taken away freedoms and muzzled the their courts. Will the people of Hungary finally get a fair election and oust Orban? USA is trying to keep that from happening. Hungarians are not against EU or Brussels, Orban government is against EU and Brussels.
Russia fires scores of missiles at Ukraine as Hungary threatens to block EU sanctions
ussia has fired scores of missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine, flattening a residential house in the capital, two days before the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Kremlin had launched 297 drones and nearly 50 missiles on Sunday, in the latest in a wave of overnight strikes. He said “a significant proportion” had been shot down as he called on allies to strengthen the country’s air defences against enemy attacks.
The Ukrainian president said: “Moscow continues to invest in strikes more than in diplomacy. This time, Russian targets included not only energy facilities, but also logistics, in particular railway and municipal water supply infrastructure.”
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The intense barrage came amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and neighbouring Slovakia and Hungary. Budapest is threatening to block a new package of European Union sanctions; while Bratislava says it will shut off electricity supplies to Ukraine on Monday.
Both are demanding the resumption of Russian oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory. Kyiv says a Russian drone attack in January damaged the pipeline that supplies oil to central Europe.