Echos of Ukraine crisis
February 20th, 2014A pro-government analyst says the EU should beware of violent protesters and work with Russia to establish peace. A liberal commentator finds similarities between Putin’s stance towards Ukraine and the Paks nuclear plant loan. A centrist pundit fears a wave of refugees across the Ukranian-Hungarian border.
Gábor Stier, Magyar Nemzet’s leading foreign policy commentator sees no solution in sight, as the government and the opposition are both too weak to bring passions under control in Ukraine. He argues that the hot-headed radicals will inevitably clash with the political opposition as well. Therefore, he warns, the EU should reconsider its support for Ukrainian demonstrators and recognize that a solution must be reached in negotiations between East and West “to secure the peace in Eurasia”.
András Léderer, a liberal journalist writing for HVG thinks Budapest can end up in the shoes of Kiev, writes, because “Putin always asks for the price in the end”. He claims the credit the Hungarian government is about to get from Russia to cover the expenses of building a new nuclear plant in Paks will be given at the price of Hungary’s sovereignty.
On Cink, Albert Gazda condemns Hungarian journalists who interpret the events in Ukraine as a conflict between “Putinist bad guys and pro-Europe good guys”. Those behind the street violence are outright extremists, he argues, including authentic fascists. He warns those Hungarian journalists who keep supporting them just because they hate Putin, that in the end “we may well find ourselves with tens of thousands of refugees on the Hungarian border.”