MEP Gyöngyösi: Hungary’s road to isolation

April 12 of 2023 was an eventful day in Hungary. Foreign Minister Péter Szíjjártó had just returned from Moscow to host his Belarusian colleague in Budapest, taking no more than two days to tick off both states that are held responsible by the western world for the aggression in Ukraine.

In the meantime, the United States of America started an outdoor media campaign in Hungary to counterbalance the Budapest government’s propaganda machine and show Hungarians the real reasons for the Ukraine war.

This is a highly unusual step indeed, but it’s equally uncommon for a NATO member state government to consequently take a pro-Moscow stance and call for Ukraine’s surrender on a weekly basis – but that’s exactly what’s going on in Hungary.

Meanwhile, the United States’ Budapest Ambassador David Pressman, unusually for a diplomat, called for a press conference to announce sanctions against certain entities located in Hungary. Although the sanctions weren’t nearly as serious as some people expected based on the media reports, the ban on the Russian spy bank and its Budapest operatives, including a Hungarian diplomat, is an important message.