Preliminary assessments of Putin’s visit to Budapest
October 31st, 2019While most outlets warn the people of Budapest about the roads to be temporarily closed for security reasons along the route of the visiting Russian president, a liberal analyst believes the Hungarian-Russian summit is just meant to demonstrate Russia’s good relations with an EU member country.
“Budapest may be paralysed because of Putin”, Mandiner announces in its headline on the successive road closures in central Budapest and along the roads leading to the airport. While Propeller’s headline runs “This is how Putin turns Budapest upside down”.
Hvg online, on the other hand, dedicates two analyses to the Hungarian-Russian summit. András Németh believes that the two leaders only meet because it has by now become customary for the Russian president to pay at least one visit to Hungary yearly. No real decisions requiring the signatures of the number one leaders are on the agenda, he continues, although Hungary may ask to only pay the instalments of the Russian credit line for the construction of the two large Paks nuclear power station blocks when they are already in operation, on account of the significant delay compared to the original schedule. In a video conversation with a colleague, Márton Gergely, the same author suggests that Hungary is only important for Putin as a partner because it is a member of the European Union.