Szijjártó: labeling the revolutionaries of 1956 as fascists is unacceptable

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York on Friday after the UN General Assembly, where they also addressed the scandal surrounding the Russian history textbook and the Russian-Ukrainian peace talks.

Commenting on the UN General Assembly, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said he believed that "this week was again lost" because there had not been enough consultation with the Russians. "We hold talks with each other at every UN meeting. It would be good if other Western politicians did the same, then perhaps there would be more hope for peace in Ukraine," Szijjártó said somewhat reproachfully following the meeting.

The most important topic discussed was the war, and Szijjártó told Lavrov that it was the Russian-Ukrainian war ending as soon as possible was in Hungary’s interest. Therefore, we are advocating an immediate ceasefire and peace talks, he said, adding that he considers a solution on the battlefield unlikely. According to the Foreign Minister, Lavrov told him that Russia was ready to negotiate.

Szijjártó also brought up the issue of the Russian history textbook with Lavrov. The textbook, commissioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently made the news in Hungary because it referred to the '56 Hungarian revolutionaries as fascists. We wrote about the textbook's exact wording here.

"Calling these people fascists is simply unacceptable."

– Szijjártó said. The Foreign Minister had earlier refused to summon the Russian ambassador on the issue, because he said the 1956 revolution was not up for debate. He now said that Lavrov had "assured him that President Putin's latest statement on this matter is the applicable guiding principle". As previously reported, in early September, when answering a question on whether the Soviet Union was a colonialist power, Putin called the Soviet troops' 1956 invasion of Hungary a mistake.

The parties also spoke about Russian-Hungarian energy cooperation and economic cooperation. Lavrov reassured Szijjártó that Russian companies would deliver the energy resources contracted as planned.