Hungarian Conservative

The new ambassador to Hungary, Sándor Fegyir (in Ukrainian: Федір Федорович Шандор) was born in Ungvár (Uzhorod) into a Hungarian Ukrainian family in 1975. A sociologist and university professor, he volunteered to fight for his country when Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and he has been on the front ever since as the leader of the so-called ‘Tanscarpathian Dragons’ unit.

‘Nation-states will be reduced in their functionality, becoming of secondary importance as entities, and the principle of territorial existence will slowly dissolve into a new, boundless uniformity. To use a rather un-English term, we are going to witness the deterritorialization of the world—a world deprived of the territories of its constituents, at least if we are to believe the new utopians.’

The rhetoric of spiritual mobilization, of Russia’s responsibility for the fate of the world, and of the ‘burden of the Russian people’ is becoming dominant once again as it was many times before during tragic periods in Russian history. Economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation as the punishment for the annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine are interpreted by the Russian regime and the majority of Russians as confirmation of progressing Anomia in the West, and will strengthen the Katechonic argument.

After the victorious election, the prime minister made it clear that the Russian aggression against Ukraine was forcing us to partially revise our strategy in foreign affairs, adjusting it to the changed circumstances. It is hardly surprising, then, that proposals and ideas of a strategic nature have increasingly claimed centre stage at in-camera government sessions and in public forums alike.

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.

Despite OTP’s continued support of Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention has recently classified the Budapest-based bank as an ‘international war sponsor’ for not shutting down its Russian subsidiary.

Hungary has recently announced that it is leaving the International Investment Bank, soon after the US Treasury imposed sanctions on the IIB and its leadership. But what is the story behind this controversial financial institution and what led to its demise?

According to the findings of a poll by Nézőpont Intézet, 54 per cent of the population believes that another world war could come soon, while 55 per cent fears nuclear strikes from one of the parties. Prime Minister Orbán has shared similarly ominous sentiments in the past.

There has been no doubt from the first moment that Hungary is committed to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, argues Zsolt Németh, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Parliament in an interview about the decades of Hungarian NATO membership, the Hungarian peace diplomacy and the prospects of the Finland & Sweden Accession.

Despite the continual support and humanitarian aid provided by Hungary, serious anti-Hungarian voices and resentment of Hungary still appear in the Ukrainian media.

In the absence of a peace treaty with Russia, Japan has not yet practically ended WWII—and now it is acutely feeling the ominous signs of another global conflict. The island nation is trying to take control of its destiny under the shadow of today’s superpower militarisation and the war in Ukraine.

Marking the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tibor Benkő, the Hungarian minister of defence at the start of the war, and György Nógrádi, acclaimed security policy expert discussed the war at an event organised by the Batthyány Lajos Foundation.

‘I have a very unpopular view of the war in Ukraine, in the United States. I am more welcome here in my view than anywhere in the United States. I will start by saying that I believe in Ukrainian sovereignty. However, I do not believe that it is in US interest to do what we’re doing,’ Dr Bradley-Farrell told the audience.

Anti-government protests, prompted by the soaring energy prices in Moldova, ended in chants of ´we want to be part of Russia!´.

Last April, the overwhelming majority of Hungarian people voted against the left-wing opposition in favour of the current government party, conscious that it promised to protect Hungary’s peace and security above all—even if the excisemen of the war would have it otherwise.

Shortly after the uncovered plot to destabilise Moldova, Russian missiles violated the country’s airspace.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal recently stated that the country would like to join the EU in a two-year timetable. However, most member states think that this timeline for Kyiv’s bid is unrealistic.

Upon the advent of the new decade, it was expected that the 2020s would be challenging even without a major economic crisis or another high-impact, low-probability event after the COVID–19 pandemic.

Although the war on the Ukrainian front is at a standstill at the moment, in the hinterland the West has won a brilliant victory in the heroic fight against Russian culture.

As long as legal harassment, inter-ethnic conflicts, economic hardships and—on top of all that—war plague the Hungarians in Ukraine, their survival can only be assured by the heroic perseverance we have seen in them countless times before.

The uptick in the number of refugees from Ukraine to Hungary is hardly surprising given the cold winter and the damage to the Ukrainian infrastructure and housing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested a one-and-a-half-day truce in the Russo-Ukrainian war, but the Ukrainian leadership and their Western allies do not want any part of it, considering Moscow’s proposal a sham. To what extent the guns on the front will die down until Saturday evening is highly questionable.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the rising strongman of Russia also known as Putin’s chef, is believed to have established the infamous Wagner Group.

According to Van Buren, it is ‘shameful’ that the Biden administration is not forcefully pushing for a diplomatic solution, but is content to bleed out the Russians, as it did in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

In September, Ramzan Kadyrov announced that he might leave his position as President of the Chechen Republic—which has given rise to speculation that he may be interested in pursuing a powerful position at the federal level.

Many Hungarian news sites claimed on Tuesday that Hungarian Finance Minister Mihály Varga vetoed the proposed EU aid to Ukraine. As it turns out, the assistance package was not even voted on at the ECOFIN meeting.

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.

Back in 2014, Merkel made it clear that while Europe should pursue a tough policy on Russia, it should also work on a diplomatic solution to end the hostilities. That type of commitment to achieving peace is exactly the approach Europe misses in the current conflict.

Energy-intensive industries are starting to migrate to America because of the much cheaper gas and electricity available there—POLITICO cited Belgian chemical giant Solvay as an example, which recently announced that it would no longer make any investments in Europe and would take all its production to America.

In the Russo-Ukrainian war most probably both sides have committed acts of unjustifiable violence. What needs to be considered, however, is whether the crimes are rare missteps, or rather a systemic mode of operation of the belligerents.