While Hungary was never as close to Russia as Ukraine, an astounding 72 percent of Hungarians said in 2010 most Hungarians are worse off than they were under communist rule when they were intrinsically linked to Russia and the rest of the Eastern Bloc. A protest movement in Hungary over corruption and an increasingly pro-Russian leadership broke out this week, raising questions about whether the former communist nation is on the verge of becoming the next Ukraine. Hungary is more stable than Ukraine, which has been besieged by sectarian conflict for months, and seems less likely to fall into violent conflict, but growing anti-government demonstrations could become another battleground between Europe and Russia. Orban and the Hungarian parliament, of which Orban’s Fidesz party has a majority two-thirds control, passed a law earlier this month that would allow for a Russian gas pipeline that bypasses Ukraine for Hungary. The EU is starkly opposed. He also signed a $12.5 billion euro deal with Russia to upgrade a nuclear facility in Hungary. The gas deal means Russian giant Gazprom would have an effective monopoly over Hungarian gas, but Orban argues that it will secure Hungarian gas in the future, particularly in light of the Ukrainian crisis. Despite Western condemnation of Orban’s shift toward authoritarianism, Orban isnt afraid to say he admires Russias, Turkeys and China’s economic and political systems, which he described as “not Western, not liberal, not liberal democracies, maybe not even democracies, and yet making nations successful,” in a speech in July. He went on to advocate for “parting ways with Western European dogmas [and] making ourselves independent from them.” ibtimes/hungary-next-ukraine-protests-show-country-ripe-conflict-between-russia-europe-1725744
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 13:56:59 +0000
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