Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday questioned who began the Russia-Ukraine war and criticized Western leaders for supporting Kyiv.
Orbán said EU leaders are justifying their support by framing Ukraine as a small country that has been attacked.
“Of course, it’s not that small,” Orbán said, referring to Ukraine. “And it’s not even clear who attacked whom. In any case, it is a country that has been subjected to violence.”
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he said two of Moscow’s key goals were to “liberate Donbas from the Kyiv regime” and to “demilitarize and denazify” the country.
In his annual press conference on Friday, Putin defended what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine. “We don’t consider ourselves responsible for people’s deaths because it wasn’t us who started the war,” Putin said in response to a question, blaming the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a “coup d’etat.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha responded to Orbán’s comments by posting on social media: “Just as ‘not clear’ as it was for Hungaryʼs leadership in 1939.”
Orbán was speaking to reporters after the European Council summit, where EU leaders agreed to jointly borrow €90 billion to send financial aid to Ukraine.
Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia chose not to participate in the program to fund Kyiv, cementing their Ukraine-skeptic alliance and delivering another blow to the EU’s unity after leaders failed to reach an agreement on using more than €200 billion in frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine.
Orbán also revealed before Thursday’s EU summit that Putin had warned the Hungarian leader that Moscow would take countermeasures if the EU tapped Russian assets to help Ukraine.
According to Orbán, Putin told him there will be “a strong response using all the instruments of international law, and they will take into account the position of each individual member state of the union.”
“So we Hungarians have protected ourselves,” Orbán said.
I don't get what Hungarians see in this dude. Bloated, weak and stupid isn't usually what people look for in a leader.
He's apparently been in power for a long time, at least since 2010 according to wikipedia (uninterrupted?). By now he simply knows how to play the system, and tweaked it in his favor. There's not much democracy involved here.
People are right now again protesting his regime; even more than usually.
edit: hmm, I might have misread above comment, maybe jubilationtcornpone got it right.
collapsed inline media
hes been in power for like decade+, and he has state controlled propaganda on his shoulders.
State controlled propaganda.
— the state propaganda
Don't call these sort of people stupid. They wouldn't be were they are if they were.
Some of the dumbest people I know are very successful. It's apparently very profitable to not think things through, boast about your own excellence, and ignore how your actions affect others.
There is a slight difference between being stupid and having no respect for others. Orbán and friends very well know what they are doing. They just don't care about the consequences for others.
There are multiple examples of stupid people getting into power through belligerence, although there tends to be a smart person in the background pulling the strings.
They are simply different things. The latter is required to become wealthy (and usually also to become powerful), the former isn't.
I assess them on a case-by-case basis: they are all heartless assholes but I'd say Trump is actively and harmfully stupid, while others are not. And it is often surprising how obviously dumb very rich people can be. No idea about Órban though.
A lot of people mistake confidence with capability. So if you can say the stupidest shit like you mean it and never change your mind, there is a significant part of the population that will follow you, regardless of how stupid you are.