There is no threat of a Ukrainian attack on our energy infrastructure, the government is lying – András Rácz

"I see that Ukraine is preparing further steps with the aim of disrupting the Hungarian energy system. I have therefore issued an order to increase the protection of critical energy infrastructure," Viktor Orbán said on Wednesday after meeting with the Defense Council, announcing that soldiers would be deployed near key energy facilities throughout the country.

Russia expert András Rácz responded to this announcement in a Facebook post, saying that the government is not telling the truth and that there is in fact no threat of a Ukrainian attack. According to him, this is evidenced by the fact that there is an established protocol for such cases, and if a NATO member state indeed sees a realistic chance of such an event, it must first activate Article 4 of the Washington Treaty and request consultation with its NATO allies. Article 4 reads as follows:

The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.

"In terms of military security, we have never been as safe throughout all of Hungarian history as we are now, as a member of NATO – yet the Hungarian government is not using this mechanism. It is not requesting consultation, nor is it announcing loudly that it is requesting consultation. Why is that?" the security policy expert asked, then answered, “The NER has become increasingly stupid over the past 16 years – but even they are not so stupid that they do not know that NATO membership is the best guarantee of our military security.” (NER – Short for System of National Cooperation, originally used by Fidesz to refer to changes within the government that were to be introduced in the early 2010a. By now it is used in colloquial Hungarian to refer to Fidesz’ governing elite and the oligarchs around it – all of whom are profiting from the system.)

In other words, according to Rácz, the fact that the Hungarian government chose to send soldiers to protect critical energy infrastructure instead of consulting NATO proves that there is no real threat and that the whole thing is just a campaign ploy.