In an unusual move the US State Department issued the following press statement on November 27, 2018: Heather Nauert Department Spokesperson Washington, DC The United States requested the extradition of two suspected Russian arms dealers, Vladimir Lyubishin Sr. and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr., pursuant to the U.S.-Hungary Extradition Treaty. Hungary denied the U.S. request and instead extradited the suspects to Russia, […]
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has travelled to Budapest to warn Prime Minister Orbán. The US won’t tolerate Orbán’s cozy relationship with Russian President Mr. Putin and won’t allow NATO member Hungary to slip over to the Russian sphere of influence. Secretary Perry, a fifth-generation Texan understands energy and knows that Russia keeps Orbán on a short leash. Hungary gets […]
Mr. David B. Cornstein, the new US Ambassador to Budapest, recently gave a lengthy interview to the Hungarian magazine Szombat. Amb. Cornstein discussed his mother’s Hungarian family roots, his career goals and several issues of US-Hungary relations. In general, Cornstein does not see problems with Hungary’s Human Rights record, press freedom or separation of powers. In fact, he insists that […]
As the founder and former international spokesperson of Montreal based civil rights advocacy group, The Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter, I would like to publicly pay my respects to the late Senator John McCain, who passed away this weekend after a heroic and dignified battle with cancer. Senator McCain was a Conservative American politician, a prominent member of the Republican Party, […]
Eighty years ago, British PM Neville Chamberlain went to Munich for a summit meeting with Adolf Hitler, to save the world from a military cataclysm. At the time, Hitler’s scientists were already working hard to unlock the destructive force of the atom. His „rocket men” were busy designing the first prototypes of the pilotless delivery vehicles that would pummel London […]
Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau once quipped, in a good natured way, that living next to the US is like sleeping next to an elephant. After hearing this Sunday’s extraordinarily virulent and unfair attacks on his son, by Donald Trump and his White House lap-dogs, Peter Navarro and Larry Kudlow, Canadians are bracing themselves: the elephant has gone […]
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has delivered a serious warning to Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Washington D.C. In Budapest the government-controlled media claimed that the meeting was a “significant success” and the parties had discussed the situation in neighboring Ukraine. Szijjártó assured the American politician that Hungary would “defend the Hungarian community in Ukraine,” and informed the […]
At 80 years of age Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright has had a long political career. She served as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State under President Clinton and was the first woman to hold this high level position. Albright has Czech ancestry. Her father was a well-known anti-fascist who worked for the Beneš government-in-exile in London and later became a […]
In 2015, I penned an editorial in The New York Times warning against the growing influence in Europe of Hungary’s right wing prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Last Sunday Orbán was re-elected for a third consecutive term. His hold on power is more entrenched than ever, and his xenophobic, nationalist platform continues to spread beyond Hungarian borders. As U.S. Ambassador to […]
There was no announcement in Washington DC, nothing from the White House nor from the State Department; no news of an ambassadorial appointment. Yet, Budapest based pro-government Hungarian daily Magyar Idők has announced that President Donald Trump will send businessman David Cornstein to Budapest as the next US Ambassador. According to the paper they received this information from well-connected Hungarian […]
