Viktor Orbán loses his Putin discount – POLITICO

“Hungary and Slovakia have made commitments to diversify their oil supplies, but we have yet to see concrete steps,” she said. “Ukraine saw no real prospect of ending the purchase of Russian oil by these EU countries. This of course explains the introduction of sanctions against one of the largest Russian oil exporters.”

Hungarian headache

The row over Ukraine comes at a potentially dangerous time for Orbán, who has long defended his good relations with the Kremlin as an economic necessity.

Energy subsidies, affordable fuel and lower energy bills are key factors that make the populist leader attractive at home. But high inflation of 17.5 percent last year has left some voters doubting.

Earlier this week, Budapest also missed a deadline to pay a €200 million fine imposed by the European Court of Justice for breaching EU law. the bloc’s refugee asylum rules, allowing the EU to withhold money from much-needed future payments to the country.

Now, the 61-year-old Orbán, who has been in power for more than a decade, faces one of the biggest challenges of his political career: the rise of an opponent from his own camp.

Former European Parliament member Péter Magyar, once a member of Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party, launched a new movement in March that promised to end the country’s “mafia state” and even shift Hungary’s traditionally pro-Russian foreign policy toward closer ties with Ukraine.