Time for NATO to Get Tough with Orban

In the fall of 1956, Hungarians decided they wanted to live in a democracy, not in a Stalinist dictatorship imposed on them by the Soviet Union.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev disagreed – and responded by sending in Soviet tanks.

Hungarians, mostly young students and workers, took up arms to defend their country. Soviet troops stormed Budapest and installed a puppet regime.

Those who resisted were executed or jailed.

Yuri Andropov: Butcher and Putin godfather

The Soviet ambassador to Hungary at the time was Yuri Andropov. He oversaw the ensuing crackdown and became known as “The Butcher of Budapest”.

Upon his return to Moscow, Andropov was appointed as head of the KGB in May 1967. He served in that post for a quarter century, until May 1982. Given that Vladimir Putin joined the KGB in 1975, Andropov was his top boss in the Soviet secret police.

Putin allegedly admires Andropov, the KBG butcher who rose to become General Secretary and hence leader of the Soviet Union for a brief period from late 1982 to early 1984.

In any case, Putin is eager to do in Ukraine what Andropov did in Hungary.

Hungary’s fight for freedom

No doubt Hungarians today remember what the Soviets did almost 70 years ago. There are still bullet holes on many Budapest facades where Soviet tanks machine-gunned buildings, killing civilians.

The Museum of Terror in the capital documents the torture and execution of Hungarian freedom fighters.

From freedom fighter to Russian pussy cats?

Given that proud history, you would expect Hungary to be in the forefront of NATO countries condemning the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and especially calling for more arms for Ukrainians.

Actually, the exact opposite has been true. While other NATO members are demonstrating a very high level of unusual unity, solidarity and determination, Hungary consistently stands out.

Viktor Orban, Putin’s bosom buddy

This is due to the machinations of the country’s prime minister Viktor Orban, who has not made a secret of his respect for Putin.

Orban opposes tougher sanctions on Russia and has agreed to pay for Russian energy imports in rubles, as Putin demands.

Worse, he has called Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy “an opponent” and criticized Ukraine – apparently for putting up resistance to Putin’s aggression.

Unsurprisingly, Orban as a Putin lover is also a darling of the Trump wing of the U.S. Republican Party – such as Fox News’ talking head Tucker Carlson, who routinely attacks Ukraine and kisses up to Putin.

Equally unsurprising is the fact that Orban has been selected to headline the assemblage of America’s Russia collaborationists CPAC in May – probably because they didn’t quite dare invite Putin.

Orban’s collaborationist role models

Actually, Orban is not very original in hitching the Hungarian wagon to a nasty European warlord.

After all, Hungary’s interwar ruler Admiral Horthy joined the Nazi-led Triple Alliance and sent Hungarian troops to the Eastern front. He got rewarded by Hitler with Transylvania, which Hungary wanted to take from Romania.

Appropriately enough, that era’s flirtation with Hitler ended in tears. Germany eventually occupied Hungary, then the Red Army arrived and established Communist rule.

Given that the lessons of history from that era seem to have been wasted on Orban, one can only hope for a repeat of that history today.

Orban seems to hope that, if Putin wins, he will reward his faithful Viktor with portions of Western Ukraine. It has a sizable ethnic Hungarian minority and Orban has been giving them all Hungarian passports – which is another reason why Kyiv has been irritated with Orban.

No more heroic Hungarians?

You would expect that Hungarians dumped this Putin lackey at the first opportunity. Instead, Orban has recently won his fourth term in office.

Why? Orban has been playing a masterful cynical game. He is taking advantage of Hungary’s membership in the EU to grow the domestic economy for two purposes.

First, via EU handouts he can raise the living standards of his electorate, especially on the countryside. And second, to establish a coterie of corrupt Putinesque oligarchs in Hungary who buy out media companies and undertake other steps to undermine democracy in Hungary.

Letting Orban be Orban

Hungarians like that and they don’t mind it if their leader is in bed with Putin – but only because they feel safe.

You see, Hungary is a member of NATO. It thus enjoys the protection of the Alliance’s Article 5, which considers an attack on one of its members as an attack on each and every one of its members.

This also gives Hungary full protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Unlike Ukraine, which heroically stands alone against Russia’s massive army, Hungary will never have to face Putin on its own.

Fearful, double-timing Hungary

Hungarians may harbor some historic resentment against the West – possibly because after World War I when their territory was severely reduced in the Treaty of Trianon.

But their fear of Russia is far stronger. Looking at the footage of Russian atrocities and war crimes in Bucha, Irpen and other towns around Kyiv, it is easy for them to imagine a similar fate befalling the leafy outskirts of Buda – incidentally, the areas where Orban’s cronies and their families like to live.

Time to get tough with Orban

It is time for NATO to get tough with Orban. It should threaten to expel Hungary from the Alliance if Orban continues to play footsie with Putin and break the united Western front against the aggressor.

Orban, the opportunist

Orban is an opportunist, but he is not mad. He will turn on the dime to save his political career.

The West should thus force his hand. If under those circumstances his love for Putin were to trump his instinct of political self-preservation, he may very well face a popular rebellion by a Hungarian electorate suddenly unmoored from the protective umbrella of the West.

If that were to happen, Orban may end up as an exile in the Russian city of Rostov – where he would join Ukraine’s disgraced former president Viktor Yanukovych.