Hungary’s Orban looks like he’d like to be an intermediary and peacemaker between Ukraine and Russia. By all means, encourage him. From Andrew Korybko at korybko.substack.com:
Orban feels so strongly about peace due to his deep pride in European civilization and associated lament at seeing it torn apart by this conflict.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Moscow on Friday ahead of his trip to Azerbaijan the day after to attend the Organization of Turkic States’ annual summit that’s being held there this year. This came shortly after his trip to Kiev, the first that he undertook since the latest phase of the decade-long Ukrainian Conflict began nearly 18 months ago, where he discussed peace and bilateral relations with Zelensky. As could have been foreseen, leading European figures didn’t take his visit to Moscow kindly.
European Council President Charles Michel reacted by reminding Orban that he can’t negotiate on behalf of the EU during his country’s rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed shock at the news and hinted that Orban would be Putin’s “tool”. The second-mentioned leader’s words were especially surprising since Hungary is Poland’s oldest ally and they celebrate their centuries-long friendship every year on 23 March.
Differences between them emerged since the start of Russia’s special operation almost two and a half years ago after Poland’s former conservative-nationalist government gave their ideological counterparts in Hungary the cold shoulder over Orban’s opposition to arming Ukraine and perpetuating the conflict. Be that as it may, they abstained from making the blatantly rude remarks that Tusk just did, which are motivated at reaffirming his liberal–globalist ideology at the expense of their historic friendship.
