Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, in a visit that has been heavily criticised by EU leaders and Ukraine's government.
Friday's meeting was part of what Mr Orban called a "peace mission", coming three days after a visit to Kyiv where he met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The "peace" envisioned by Orban and Putin is the same deal offered to Czechoslovakia in 1938: "You guys surrender to aggression in the vain hope of avoiding a wider war." Putin's terms for suspending the war include the surrender of territory Russia doesn't control.
And it is a suspension, for as soon as Putin can rebuild his second-rate army, he'll finish the job. Maybe he's convinced Orban Russia will invade Hungary last.
The Hungarians haven't changed since they were allied with the Nazis. One might have thought that 1956 would have reminded them of what life was like under Russian rule, but I guess they've forgotten.
Peace in our time...complete with American Quislings....
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to imagine that the Hungarians have forgotten 1956, when all the Balkan states memories remain so vivid.I'm guessing that this all seems totally normal to them as their government controls what they see on tv.Watch this space locally.
ReplyDelete"Who controls the present controls the past; who controls the past controls the future."
ReplyDelete- George Orwell, 1984
Orban remembers 1956 very differently than professional historians, and even people who were there at the time. (he was age minus-7)
https://www.cultures-of-history.uni-jena.de/politics/1956-reloaded-the-sixtieth-anniversary-celebrations-of-the-hungarian-revolution
It was startling to see how Hungary almost literally ran away from democracy after barely 20 years of multiparty politics (1990-2010, when Orban became overtly authoritarian).