Although Hungary has joined EU sanctions against Russia, Prime Minister Viktor Orban is doing everything to uphold his reputation as one of the most pro-Russian leaders in Europe..

A few days before the NATO summit, the Hungarian prime minister said that he was opposed to a no-fly zone over Ukraine, the sending of Alliance peacekeeping forces to our country and the imposition of an embargo on Russian gas supplies to European countries. Orban argues: “Sanctions cannot be extended to the supply of Russian gas and oil, because for Hungary and several other EU countries this is a disproportionate, unbearable burden.. They will hurt us more than Russia."

When Orban uttered these words, as a result of Russia's barbaric actions in Ukraine, thousands of civilians had already died - children, women, the elderly.. Russian aviation and artillery reduced Mariupol, Kharkiv, Volnovakha and other Ukrainian cities and villages to ashes. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took refuge in basements and the subway. Millions became refugees. In the occupied territories, Russian special services abducted and killed pro-Ukrainian activists. Defending Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers, including those of Hungarian origin, died from the bullets of Russians.

So what is happening in Hungary and with Hungary? Why, while verbally condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in reality, the Orban government does not allow weapons to enter our country, but only in transit to other NATO countries? Why is the Russian International Investment Bank still operating there Why Hungary does not seek to tighten EU sanctions against Russia? Why Orban is actually playing along with Putin? Maybe Hungary sold out for cheap Russian gas?

There are several reasons for Orban’s cynical behavior: a desire to stay in power, a desire to get more resources from the EU, favorable prices for Russian gas, an intention to get Kyiv to revise education laws….

Parliamentary elections will be held in Hungary on April 3. For his Fidesz party to win again, Orban bet on the Hungarians' fear of high utility bills. Not surprisingly, one of Orban's main achievements is a long-term contract with Gazprom, signed last year.. No one knows at what price Hungary buys Russian gas. But Hungarian officials claim that it is significantly lower than under the previous contract.

At the same time, Orban accuses the opposition of wanting to drag Hungary into the war, which endangers the lives of Hungarian citizens..

Hungarian opinion poll shows Orban's campaign tactics are working. According to Politico, 50% of Hungarian voters are ready to support Fidesz, and only 44% are ready to support the united opposition.. Another thing is also noteworthy: according to a Publicus Institute poll, while 90% of opposition supporters believe that the prime minister should condemn Russia more harshly than he does now, 81% of Fidesz voters said that the prime minister does not need this.

In addition to the elections, there is another reason for the ambivalent position of Budapest. And it is connected with Orban's tactics towards the EU and NATO..

The fact is that in recent years the Hungarian prime minister has been constantly declaring that he is going to block certain initiatives of Brussels, trying to negotiate some preferences for himself.. But if Budapest sees that it is alone, then, as a rule, it agrees with the decisions of the allies.

And when the EU announced that they had begun to consider Ukraine's application for EU membership, Hungary (and its representative Oliver Vargei, the European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement) did not block this decision. And with the allocation by the European Union of one billion euros from the European Peace Fund for the purchase of weapons by Ukraine, Budapest agreed.

But our informed interlocutors from the Ukrainian authorities believe that in the current situation, Orban is playing his old game, bargaining with the EU, NATO, and the United States.. (In particular, in the issue of allocating EU funds for Hungary, including a loan under the Recovery and Sustainability Fund. ) Of course, Budapest will not yield in all its positions. But at the summit, NATO will definitely not object to additional military assistance to our country..

Much in the position of Hungary will also depend on what tactics Washington chooses towards Budapest.. However, today US-Hungarian relations are very strained: Orban has excellent relations with Donald Trump and terrible relations with Joe Biden, who called the Hungarian prime minister a dictator.

Finally, in the situation of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Budapest is trying to put pressure on Kyiv to change the legislation on education, which, according to the Hungarian side, " So, during a peaceful march on the occasion of the 174th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Schemien once again spoke about the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. However, in Kyiv they are not going to back down on the issue of legislation on education..

But whatever the motives of the Orban government in pursuing a dual policy towards Ukraine and Russia, for us Ukrainians, the shades are not important right now.. When children are killed, you cannot be half a friend, stand aside and only nod your head sympathetically. Orban's policy causes disgust. And not only among members of the Ukrainian government, but also in Ukrainian society.

According to the survey data published by the Rating sociological group, if Ukrainians call almost all EU states friends, then in relation to Hungary and Germany the results differ. For example, among the friends of Ukraine during the war, Poland confidently took the lead: 79% called it " Among other Western allies, Ukrainians singled out Lithuania (85% called it “friendly” and no one called it “hostile”), Britain (86 and 1%, respectively) and the United States (88 and 2%, respectively).

But only 45% of the polled Ukrainians considered Hungary a friendly state (including only 13% - “definitely friendly”), and 12% called it hostile. And if Orban and his cabinet, in case of victory in the parliamentary elections, continue to pursue such a cynical policy towards Ukraine and the aggressor country, Russia, then the results of the next opinion poll will even more eloquently show the attitude of Ukrainians towards our neighbor.

Read more articles by Vladimir Kravchenko at the link.