‘Let us not forget that while most of the world has rightly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, twenty years ago the United States invaded Iraq on false information that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein not only possessed weapons of mass destruction, but that he had a direct link to and was harbouring al-Qaeda terrorists…The tragic results cost several thousand US soldiers’ lives.’

Hungary did not veto a joint EU statement on Putin’s arrest warrant, the MFAT’s spokesperson stated on Monday evening. ‘Hungary has taken note of the ICC decision and does not wish to comment on it in any way,’ Máté Paczolay said.

‘We did not set the speech up some kind of head-to-head. This is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else,’ underlined US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, stating that Biden’s speech was not planned as a direct rebuttal to Putin.

Rastislav Káčer made the controversial statements on the same TV programme where Speaker of the National Council Boris Kollár expressed similar views last April.

To reassure the public that the government cares for the soldiers in Ukraine and their families, Putin has met with a carefully selected group of mothers whose sons are fighting or have died on the frontline in Ukraine.

Apparently, Russia’s air offensive is trying to split Ukrainian resources, while there is increasing pressure on the Russian troops in the south of Ukraine. However, a series of attacks on the power network may bring the Ukrainians to the negotiating table if life in the country becomes completely unbearable during the winter.

Alexander III of Russia is known to be Putin’s favourite tsar. During his reign, he advocated for Russification, for Russia’s interests in global affairs and for the ‘inviolability of autocracy’.

Although Putin was the first world leader Xi Jinping met with outside China since the outbreak of the pandemic, Beijing is probably more interested in a West divided over Ukraine than in Russia itself.

Former Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski shared his views on sanctions, the outcome of the war and Viktor Orbán with conservative weekly Mandiner.

Since the beginning of the tragic war in Ukraine, many have embraced the idea that Russians have collective responsibility for the current events. However, it is crucial to recognise that the notion of collective guilt should not be used to demonise or incite hatred against ordinary Russians.

While most of the time Emmanuel Macron appears to be completely in line with the common position represented by the NATO allies and the European Union member states, there are occasions when he dissents.

Although Vladimir Putin likes to pose as a historian, it seems that he failed to learn from history that blitzkrieg-type invasions rarely worked in the 75 years since the Second World War – emphasized Mr. Roberts.

The petrodollar system, as can be seen, is the backbone of US hegemony in the world. And whenever a world leader has seriously challenged the system, the US and its NATO allies have been swift to respond to ensure US global dominance continues.

While on the surface Putin’s responsibility for the crisis is apparent, the reality is that Putin was provoked by the West to invade Ukraine.

I personally believe Putin would have invaded the Ukraine, as he did Crimea in 2014, whether he felt ‘provoked’ or not, especially after he lamented the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [twentieth] century’. One can conclude that the former KGB colonel, with his reverie to rebuild the former Soviet empire, was looking for an excuse to do so. And the US-led West provided it to him.

It is high time to start building a close strategic partnership with the new member of the ‘Central European family’ that—as the only one of us—got a seat at the G7 table while it is fighting a heroic fight for freedom to regain its occupied territories: i.e., Ukraine.

Through the new Hungarian centre, employees can provide even more support for the adoption of AWS cloud services to organisations of various sizes in Hungary, including startups, businesses, and public sector organisations.

There are two models of opposition—one that is based on cooperation and one that is based on absolute rejection. While democracies are characterised by cooperation between the ruling and opposition parties, out-of-power parties in Hungary are unwilling to cooperate with the ruling coalition, which results in their ineffectiveness.

According to poet and politician József Bajza, the Teleki House was a true bastion of the Hungarian language, which was in danger of erosion at the time. For his political activities, his role in improving public education, and his efforts in advancing Hungarian culture, Sámuel Teleki should be regarded as one of the greatest Hungarian figures in 18th–19th century Transylvania.

Previously, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary voiced his support for the presumptive Republican challenger, Former President Donald Trump. Both statesmen are making the case that their preferred US Presidential candidate would be better for peace in Eastern Europe.

The Hungarian government blocking the latest round of sanctions comes only days after the Orbán administration vetoed the release of €500 million of military aid to Ukraine. The blacklisting of the Budapest-based OTP Bank by Ukrainian officials is behind both of these decisions.

The Hungarian government has vetoed the 11th EU sanctions package against Russia after it was revealed that Volodymyr Zelenskyy allegedly urged the bombing of the Druzhba pipeline, a crucial route via which Russian oil is transferred to Hungary.

The European Peace Facility was posed to transfer €500 million to Ukraine for artillery round purchases, but the aid was blocked by the Hungarian government. The official explanation for the move is that Budapest would like to see the off-budget EU fund focus on more than just Ukraine, but some believe the blacklisting of OTP Bank may be behind it.

Today, confirmed anti-Semites may be the ‘great friends of the Jews’, but members and sympathisers of the government that proclaims ‘zero tolerance’ regarding anti-Semitism at all international and domestic fora, and which unequivocally stands by and up for Israel, can be labelled as the ‘new anti-Semites’. Israelis cannot invoke the Holocaust as an argument of her legitimacy and a historical event of her people, because the ‘new Jews’ are Palestinians and migrants. Now ‘Nazi’ apparently denotes a right-wing Jew in some circles, while Nazis seem to be the ‘guests of honour’ at seder tables.

Research into WWII labour service has unearthed several cases of army men who, while perhaps not immaculate individuals, did try to help certain Jews. Such research helps posterity understand the history of labour service better and historians paint a more nuanced picture of what happened.

Answering the call of the representatives of Orthodox communities, Hungary recognised that the Russian Orthodox Church has some 100 million members worldwide, and the sanctioning of its leader would isolate religious people from their spiritual leader. The Patriarch is regularly prayed for and commemorated during church services in Hungary, too, as it is home to a Hungarian Orthodox community under the Moscow Patriarchate.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine to meet with President Zelenskyy, where he expressed his strong support for Ukraine’s accession to the military alliance. Viktor Orbán, who has been a vocal proponent of peace negotiations and is fully aware that such remarks are seen as a provocative move by Russia, took to Twitter to voice his strong dissent.

Both statesmen won their respective elections by around 19 percentage points last year, but the similarities do not end there. Their stances on immigration, the Ukraine war, and, most notably, the restriction of teaching gender theory in schools, have been very much akin to each other in the past.

Two Russian ministries proposed that the Russian President issue a decree suspending agreements on the avoidance of double taxation with all countries that introduced unilateral economic sanctions against Russia during the war.

In essence, Orbán’s government is signalling a willingness to cooperate with the internationally sanctioned Iranian regime even in areas such as nuclear policy. 

Diplomacy has always been a complicated game of chess, not every move is going to be a winning one. It goes without say that there are advantages in implementing realpolitik, even with oppressive regimes. The paradox is that it can also make them even stronger.