Orbán’s Hungary – The Kremlin’s Trojan Horse

In an interesting turn in the saga of the 2016 US presidential election, President Barack Obama has requested an intelligence report on suspected hacking that took place before the election. The CIA believes that Russia intervened to help Donald Trump win and Obama has ordered the intelligence agencies to review cyberattacks and other foreign intervention.

Email accounts of Democratic National Committee officials and a Hillary Clinton campaign aide were hacked and the emails were leaked to Wikileaks. Green party presidential candidate Jill Stein has also named the cyberattacks for requesting the recount.

In October the US Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence already released a statement which alleged that Russia is behind the cyberattacks to undermine the election. Obama expects the completed report before he leaves office on January 20 and Republican Donald Trump assumes the presidency.

The Atlantic Council has also published a remarkable report, entitled The Kremlin’s Trojan horses, about Russian President Putin’s growing influence in Europe. (Read here.)

The Atlantic Council’s map of Putin friendly political parties in Europe.

The Atlantic Council’s map of Putin friendly political parties in Europe.

According to the report the Kremlin uses political parties as Trojan horses to destabilize European politics. It does it so efficiently, that even Russia’s limited might could become a decisive factor in matters of European and international security.

In Hungary’s case the report notes that Jobbik, Hungary’s far right party is under Russian influence while Fidesz, Hungary’s governing party, has “individuals associated with the party take a pro-Russian stance rather than the party itself.”

The study’s foreword was written Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s ex-Foreign Minister. Sikorsky and his wife, Washington Post columnist, Anne Applebaum used to be the darlings of Fidesz, they were friendly with the party leadership and in 2010 Ms. Applebaum received the Hungarian Petőfi Prize.

2010 - Radoslaw Sikorski (second from left) Polish and János Martonyi (third from left) Hungarian foreign ministers.  Not friends anymore.

2010 – Radoslaw Sikorski (second from left) Polish and János Martonyi (third from left) Hungarian foreign ministers. Not friends anymore.

Things have changed since then. They do not talk to their Fidesz friends anymore and Ms. Applebaum claims that Mr. Orbán and Mr. Putin are secretly trying to divide Ukraine. Hungary would grab Zakarpattia, the small Western-Ukrainian province Hitler gave back to fascist Hungary during World War II. Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party considers Zakarpattia as part of Hungary and distributes maps authored by Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky showing Russian, Romanian and Hungarian territorial demands on Ukraine.

Photo: Map of Russian, Romanian and Hungarian territorial demands on Ukraine. (Distributed by Hungarian far-right activists.)

Photo: Map of Russian, Romanian and Hungarian territorial demands on Ukraine. (Distributed by Hungarian far-right activists.)

Mr. Orbán is a vocal Putin ally. He opposes sanctions against Russia and signed a multibillion euro nuclear deal with Putin. Hungary today is a Putin-style kleptokracy and many think that the nuclear deal will benefit Mr. Orbán’s cronies. Mr. Orbán has also issued Hungarian passports to tens of thousands of Ukrainians of Hungarian origin and demanded autonomy for them. Mr. Putin used the same techniques in Eastern-Ukraine before starting to support the separatist movement.

Now Mr. Orbán hopes that during Trump’s tenure he might be able to visit the White House. He is upset that President Obama refused to talk to him; he was never invited to Washington.

Mr. Orbán’s hopes for friendlier relations with the Trump White House might be unfounded, in fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if President Trump would maintain an even tougher tone with his authoritarian regime.

György Lázár

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