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Mr Orbán’s planned visit to Moscow

January 26th, 2013

A centrist analyst asks whether Viktor Orbán has realized that closer economic ties with Putin might in fact further Russia’s political interests in the region.

Commenting on PM Orbán’s meeting with Vladimir Putin scheduled for next week, where negotiations are expected to touch on the planned enlargement of the Paks nuclear power plant, Véleményvezér suggests that Russia’s interest in Hungary is political rather than economic. The author admits that he has always taken a critical stance towards the “Eastern Wind” policy of the government, which aims at building stronger ties with countries outside the European Union. That policy has so far produced little of value for Hungary, but did produce the “axe murderer” case. (See BudaPost, September 3, 2012). “Moscow likes weak EU countries,” the author continues, and “as an ambitious political power it has a stake in East-Central Europe.” When Moscow says economic ties, what it means is political influence, and Orbán should be aware of that, Véleményvezér warns.

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