Russia Will Deliver Oil and Gas to Hungary "Even Through Twists and Turns"

On Thursday, Russian President Putin paid a visit to Hungary where he held talks with the country's Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The leaders’ conversation was based on a common understanding of global and regional challenges. A mutual liking of each other was felt. But for the European Union it was a real shake-up, as Viktor Orban is an enfant terrible for the EU, because he strongly disagrees with Angela Merkel's migration policies as well as with many other issues. If this stance is combined with the traditional Hungarian firmness of character, one can imagine how annoying Budapest is for the Brussels bureaucrats now. Orban was even once told that if they had been discussing Hungary's admission to the EU at that moment, the country would have never become a member. Given the background of Putin's upcoming visit to Budapest, the title of the Süddeutsche Zeitung isn't surprising — "The two men, who can split the EU". The article described the horrors of Russia, and in the end, it had a muddy bashing on Russian diplomats, who supposedly support the radical right-wing groups in Hungary and even taught them to shoot from air rifles. Generally, it is the German press that gives the most hostile coverage of the meeting between Putin and Orban in Budapest. Die Welt even imputes to the Russian and Hungarian leaders the fact of being men of their word. And this is thought to be rather old-fashioned. They both tend to address issues in an old-fashioned way — through a handshake of two men whose word is a law. Oh, terrifying! Our political analyst Pavel Zarubin reports from Budapest about it not being so horrible. The poultry farm Hungerit is one of the largest poultry producers in Hungary. Anti-Russian sanctions cost this enterprise alone 4 million euros each year. Huge losses. The factory used to sell 40% of its goose meat to Russia. In Soviet times, Hungarian chicken was considered a delicacy and had always been in deficit. Modern Russia has also become one of Hungarian's key markets, which proved to be very painful to lose. "Sanctions are one of the worst decisions that could have been made. But we still hope for the best and did not fire Russian-speaking employees thinking that the situation would improve". Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs who, met Putin at the airplane ramp, a few days before the visit called the sanctions cynical and unsuccessful and said that they had been worth 6 billion dollars of damage to the country. While the Russian President's cortege was driving to the building of the Parliament Prime Minister Orban was waiting outside wearing only a jacket, although Budapest is now experiencing the coldest winter in recent years. This magnificent historical building in the center of Budapest is considered to be the most beautiful parliament in Europe. It was here that Hungarian Prime Minister Orban met with Russian President Putin. The Hungarian leader emphasized that he hoped the Russophobia of his EU colleagues to fade away. Orban: "We all feel it, it's in the air that the world is undergoing very serious change and it creates more favorable conditions for EU-Russia cooperation". The main state channel of Hungary daily broadcasts news in the Russian language. There has always been an interest to Russia and it remains. Many people want to learn Russian. The Budapest University confirms this fact. There was a time in our careers when we were forced to teach languages other than Russian. Once the demand for the Russian language grew we were back to teaching Russian and we are now very happy. Anyone who has ever been abroad knows how difficult it is sometimes to figure out how to buy a ticket on the subway or on the bus. In Budapest there is no such problem. In the ticket vending machines you can choose the Russian language and spend only seconds on the purchase. In Hungary there are more and more jobs that require people to speak Russian at a very good level. A new line of the nuclear power plant Paksh is a grand-scale project nowadays, which attracted multi-billion investments and is profitable for both Russia and Hungary. Ten thousand additional well-payed and high-tech jobs means improving reliability, of course, and benefiting the future development of the Hungarian economy as a whole. Cooperation between banking systems and partnership with the famous Hungarian drug manufacturers. Compared with the previous year, in 2016 profit increased by 6.5%. The successful visit of the Russian President to the European Union has caused a fury. In European newspapers the Hungarian leader is called the "Trojan Horse" of Putin. A rally attended by rather few participants and organized by the Hungarian opposition to protest against Putin's arrival, is covered as almost the main event of the visit. And, of course, in Europe, there is no meeting, nowadays, without women holding Ukrainian flags, who are very concerned about the fate of their country, preferring to stay away from it. There is no place for Putin in Europe! The Hungarian government thinks that Ukraine is not behaving in a European manner. After the Supreme Council of Ukraine introduced legislation adopting Ukrainian as the only language in schools, universities, kindergartens, and fines for using other languages, Budapest gives Kiev a warning. The discussions about the education language in Ukraine do not favor the Hungarian minority at all. 150 thousand ethnic Hungarians reside in Zakarpattia Oblast in western Ukraine. We are concerned, because the law on languages limits the use of Hungarian. Many Hungarians come here from Ukraine, because they don't want to live there, they don't want to be summoned to war. We will not tolerate any amendments to the law on education or the law on languages, which could the status of minorities... Should any amendments and changes worsen the life of minorities, including the Hungarian one, we will raise awareness about this issue at EU level, of course. This topic isn't an internal matter of Ukraine, but an issue of much broader importance. There is another reason why the instability in Ukraine causes concern in Budapest: Ukraine transits Russian gas to Hungary. The Russian-Hungarian contract will expire in several years, and it's unclear what route the gas will be supplied by afterward. Hungary wasn't enthusiastic about the enlargement of Nord Stream, however, it was in favor of the implementation of South Stream. The South Stream doesn't exist now, as we know, there is the Turkish Stream. How do you plan to collaborate in this sphere now? Orban: "In any way, even with twists and turns, Hungary will get the oil and gas it needs. The Russian President reassured us and that's important. We cannot avoid the issue of how stable the supply of gas through Ukraine is. That is why we have always supported the diversification of gas supply. But the European Union blocked the decision that was in Hungarian interest. We will buy Russian gas through Nord Stream if we need to". Putin: "I would like to make it clear that we will depoliticize these issues. It is a solely economic matter, a matter of efficiency, economic expedience first and foremost. None of the routes are excluded here. We could implement any variant. We are not going to take offence at Bulgaria or any other countries that didn't have the courage to oppose the decisions of the European Commission. If you are ready to continue this discussion, we can do that, but we need guarantees. Our companies will not suffer loss of revenues because of decisions which are not thought through. We are not setting any political goals with regard to the transit of gas through Ukraine. If it is economically efficient and reliable enough, we don't exclude the transit of some volume of gas through Ukraine. The issue lies in diversification and economic expedience of these routes". The press conference of the country leaders didn't conclude the visit, as is usually the case. The President and Prime Minister continued talks together with a number of ministers from both sides. Brussels' discontent didn't bother anybody.