Conflicting takes on mobilisation in Russia
September 23rd, 2022While both a left-wing and a conservative author read the ‘partial mobilisation’ announced by Russian President Putin as proof of Russian failure in Ukraine, the main pro-government daily blames the United States for the war.
In Népszava, Mária Gál predicts that Russia will not be able to keep its territorial conquests in Ukraine for long, despite mobilizing reservists and annexing four Ukrainian regions. Russian soldiers, she suggests, lack the motivation and morale that would enable them to win the war. She believes Russia is also short in supplies, while on the Ukrainian side morale is high, and Ukraine enjoys the material support of western countries.
Mandiner’s Mátyás Kohán also believes that the mobilization announced by President Putin on Wednesday is tantamount to admitting the failure of the Russian army so far. Nevertheless, he doesn’t think Ukraine can win the war, as from now on Russia will not spare the lives of its soldiers. ‘As long as Russian blood is available, Ukraine cannot win’, he writes.
In Magyar Nemzet, by contrast, Tamás Pilhál describes the war as one fought between Russia and the United States. He calls on the Hungarian government to stay out of it, despite Hungary’s NATO membership. Russia, he maintains, ‘has not been our enemy for several decades’. Moreover, in a reference to the Trianon peace treaty that dismembered pre-World War One Hungary, he describes Russia as more honest a partner than ‘others, who pushed us into the house of death 102 years ago’.