Some 35 percent of polled Hungarians name Russia as their country’s most important strategic partner, while only 13 percent name the United States. Hungary’s public opinion data on Russia yield a complex picture.
The decades between 19, when Hungary was part of the Eastern bloc, did not leave many pleasant memories either. The shared history of Russia and Hungary is hardly cheerful: Russian troops defeated Hungary’s uprising against the Habsburg Empire in 1848–49, and the Soviet forces quashed a popular uprising against the Communist rule in 1956. Hungary is not a Slavic nation, and the country’s language is not Slavic. The two countries do not share a common border. Moscow does not have much soft power potential in Hungary. That said, Russia’s basis for seeking influence over the Hungarian public is weak. Hungary’s most recent parliamentary elections in 2018 were still free, but no longer fair, and there is no reason to believe that the parliamentary elections upcoming in 2022 will be any better. The ruling party operates a sophisticated system of coordinated political trolling on the internet that is similar to Russia’s “troll factories.” All of this distorts the electoral environment. Through oligarchs loyal to him, Orbán controls large segments of Hungary’s media scene. Like Putin, Orbán has dismantled the system of checks and balances that limited his power, replacing many independent officials with loyalists. There are indeed certain similarities in how the two political systems operate. The question of how close Hungary and Russia are in terms of domestic politics and foreign policy has been debated ever since. In the early 2010s, Hungarian prime minister Orbán announced his “Eastern opening” policy and started to meet bilaterally with Russian president Vladimir Putin more often than almost any other European leader. Learning what brings Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Viktor Orbán’s Hungary together should prove instructive in understanding similar developments between other countries. Careers, Fellowships, and Internships Open/CloseĪs ties between the world’s authoritarian rulers deepen in the current geopolitical climate, the case of Russia-Hungary relations helps shed light on the nature and purpose of these connections.Science and Technology Innovation Program.The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative.Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.Nuclear Proliferation International History Project.North Korea International Documentation Project.Environmental Change and Security Program.Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy.
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