Many EU and NATO Leaders Horrified that Putin Consulted
On July 5, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban traveled to Moscow and spoke with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin on possible solutions to ending the Ukraine conflict. Two and a half years of war have devastated the Ukrainian economy, resulted in over 7.0 million refugees, and resulted in the combat deaths of more than 600,000 Ukrainian soldiers and as many as 50,000 Russian Federation soldiers. The Ukrainian Army is currently suffering 1,500 to 2,000 casualties—killed and seriously wounded—per day! Initially outnumbering Russian forces more than two to one, Ukrainian combat forces are outnumbered more than four to one, and the Russian advantage is growing. The Ukrainians are running out of men, munitions, and equipment.
The war is also ravaging several European economies, especially Germany and the UK. European Union. British, and French elections reflect widespread public concern about the wisdom, dangers, and ongoing economic impact of the war. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the US had spent at least $175 billion on the Ukraine War as of the end of April 2024, and new money is found for it almost every week. Moreover, according to many highly respected foreign policy experts, the Ukraine War has already put the US, Canada, and Western Europe closer to nuclear war than the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.
On July 3, Orban made a similar trip to Kyiv to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about roads to peace with Russia. In 2019, Zelensky was elected President of Ukraine winning 75 percent of the vote, including much of the large Russian-speaking minority in the southeast, running on a peace plan to implement the 2015 Mink reform agreements and seek better relations with Russia. Zelensky, however, dropped his peace promises under pressure from radical Ukrainian ethnic purists--Svoboda Party, Right Sector, the Ukrainian intelligence services, and Azov internal security and paramilitary militias in western Ukraine. This pressure included a death threat by the still powerful founder of the Right Sector.
The day after the Russian intervention on February 24, 2022, however, Zelensky began a series of three attempted peace agreements mediated successively by Belarus, Israel, and Turkey. The US and UK managed to crush them all. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with Zelensky in Kyiv on April 8, 2022, to shut down the Istanbul agreement, which had already been signed. It is obvious that the US, UK, and several other NATO members wanted a proxy war with Russia for their own geopolitical purposes. Zelensky has been very critical of Orban for talking with Putin. Zelensky’s present attitude is that he will not talk with Putin until Russian troops are withdrawn from all pre-2014 Ukrainian territories, regardless of pro-Russian referendums held in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson in 2022, and in Crimea in 2014. Prior to 2014, at least 40 percent of Ukraine’s population was primarily Russian-speaking and pro-Russian in culture, religion, and politics.
The Ukrainian government and military have been subjecting Russian-speakers to discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and even genocide since 2014. Over 10,000 Russian ethnics were killed, mostly by Ukrainian Army artillery, during the civil war from 2015 to February 2022 in the Donbass oblasts of Donetsk and Lugansk. Ukrainian artillery escalated this bombardment a week before the Russian intervention in February 2022 and continued to shell civilian areas of Donetsk City until recently overcome by Russian forces.
Orban read a press release shortly after meeting with Putin in Moscow. Orban is essentially trying to mediate a cease-fire and peace talks. To do so, he listened to and tried to understand both Zelensky and Putin’s positions and objectives. He said that he asked three main questions of Putin:
First, what criteria had to be met for a cease-fire and in what order in both time and importance?
Second, what criteria had to be met for a permanent peace plan?
Third, what was Putin’s vision for Ukraine and for Russian-Ukraine relations after the war?
Putin indicated he is willing to discusses the nuances necessary in negotiating a peace settlement. Most recently, he has continued to insist that Ukraine be a neutral, non-NATO country and that Ukrainian troops must be withdrawn from Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts. Russian possession of Crimea and the Sevastopol Navy Base is non-negotiable. Crimea has always had a strong Russian majority and identification with Russia.
The European Union rotates its presidency every six months allowing each member-nation a turn. On July 1, Viktor Orban became President of the European Union for the next six months. Orban, however, has been a prominent critic of the European Union, especially its near-open door migration policies that have overwhelmed much of the EU with Muslim migrants. He has also not been willing to support the Ukraine War with troops, weapons, or money. Orban and Hungary are also more socially conservative than many EU nations and leaders. Hungarians want to retain their culture, whereas EU through its migration policies has tried to destroy local national cultures to make way for massive migration and consolidate EU control.
Norwegian international relations scholar, Glenn Diesen, recent author of The Ukraine War and the Eurasian World-Order, cites on page 117 a revealing August 2023 Orban argument regarding Western leadership’s abandonment of traditional values.
“[EU] Western values [now] meant three things: migration, LGBTQ, and war.”
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, recovering from an assassination attempt on May 15, announced that he would love to accompany Orban to Moscow but is not ready for a heavy travel schedule yet. Slovakia, which borders both Hungary and Ukraine, is socially conservative, and prevailing opinion opposes supplying arms to Ukraine.
France’s Marine Le Pen, whose National Rally Party is expected to do well in July 7 elections, also intends to reign in French arms support to Ukraine.
Many entrenched EU leaders, however, like EU Foreign Policy Chief, Josep Borrell, were horrified with Orban’s initiative and dismissed it as strictly bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia with no EU significance. Orban notified NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of his intended trip to Moscow and talks with Putin. Stoltenberg was quick to deny any connection to Hungary’s NATO membership. Orban’s trip will undoubtedly be discussed at the NATO Summit in Washington on July 9. Biden’s Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, indicated the President and his staff are very concerned.
Viktor Orban has been Prime Minister of Hungary since May 2010, but also held the position from 1998 to 2002. The July 5 meeting with Putin was his 11th meeting with Putin, who he considers a friend. Since the 2015 migration crisis, Orban has gained a reputation as being tough on illegal immigration and migration that threatens Hungarian culture. His views are often cited as being close to those of Putin, Robert Fico, Marine Le Pen, and Donald Trump. He is generally loved by conservatives and hated by European liberals and strong Ukraine War advocates.
“If you are not able to provide security for your own country, how can you guarantee liberties?”—Viktor Orban
Tucker Carlson interviewed Orban in 2021 and 2023 and remains an Orban enthusiast. Liberal European news (propaganda) coverage almost always refers to Orban as authoritarian, far-right, etc. Biden has called him a totalitarian dictator and thug. Liberal journalists have even defamed beautiful and livable Hungary as worse than South Africa. What Orban and Hungary support are family values, traditional Christianity, and a nation’s right to defend its culture. The largest Christian denomination in Hungary is Roman Catholic, which evidently leans to social conservatism. Orban is a conservative evangelical Christian, who identifies with the [Calvinist] Reformed Church in Hungary, an influential 10 to 16 percent of the population. Orban is a frequent critic of neo-liberal European trends. In his last election in 2022, Orban’s Fidesz Party won 135 (68%) of 199 seats in the Hungarian Parliament. This was despite intensive outside efforts and money aimed at defeating Orban.
”We must first and foremost defend Hungary's independence and sovereignty, and, if needed, we must regain it.”--Viktor Orban
Western Civilization needs to recover from its secular-humanist delusions. Viktor Orban is leading in the right direction.
Mike Scruggs is the author of two books: The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You, and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East. 
