Orbán: Putin is not bothered by Hungary's NATO membership

Vladimir Putin is not bothered by Hungary's NATO membership, only by the potential membership of Ukraine and Georgia. This was one of the points Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made in an interview with the Swiss weekly Weltwoche. According to the Prime Minister, the Russian President said this to him when they met in Moscow before the outbreak of the war. "Putin's problem," he told me, "is the US missile bases already established in Romania and Poland, and the possible expansion of NATO into Ukraine and Georgia to station weapons there. Moreover, the Americans have cancelled important disarmament treaties. That is why Putin could no longer sleep well at night." Orbán added: "I understand what Putin said. But I don't accept what he did."

In contrast, before the war broke out, Russia essentially demanded that NATO troops withdraw from countries that became members of the Western military alliance after 1997. Hungary is one of such country.

When asked how much the war was hurting Hungary, Orbán recounted the well-known government narrative that the country was primarily being hit by the EU sanctions against Russia. According to MTI (the Hungarian State News Agency) he also noted that there are Hungarians living in Ukraine who are being drafted as soldiers and "dying by the hundreds on the front line".

In a recent analysis of the latter claim, Russia expert András Rácz wrote that it could not be substantiated, and that according to official information there are probably only around 20 Hungarian fatalities in the war.

Orbán also said that Hungary is being forced into the war, but that the country's political leadership is strong enough to resist.

He criticised the United States, saying that in the ongoing war in Europe, "today the Americans have the last word", and that more and more often, the EU is deciding on matters related to the war in line with American interests. He also said that if Donald Trump had been in power, the war would not have broken out in the first place. And if Trump were re-elected, he would probably achieve peace in a matter of weeks. At one point Orbán compared the US to Brussels, because the Americans also "want to tell us how to deal with migration and how to educate our children".

On the possible outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Orbán said that no one can win the war, but it would be very dangerous if Russia were to come out of the conflict defeated. "The Ukrainians are up against a nuclear power with 140 million inhabitants, the Russians are up against NATO. That's what makes this so dangerous. We have a stalemate that could easily escalate into a world war." But Orbán says the West is failing to recognise these risks.

The Hungarian prime minister also told the Swiss newspaper how peace could be achieved:

"Peace begins in the heart, it must reach the head, which then leads the hand. This is the order: peace must be desired, then it must be wanted, then it must be created. That will is what's lacking today, at least in the West."