Hungary’s Orban faces pressure to cut close ties with Putin

By JUSTIN SPIKE
Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s right-wing nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, has nurtured close political and economic ties with Russia for more than a decade. That has given him a reputation among many across Europe as the Kremlin’s closest European Union ally. But following Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Hungary’s neighbor, Orban is facing growing pressure to change course. A formerly communist country that was dominated by the Soviet Union for more than 40 years, Hungary has historically deeply distrusted Moscow. But Orban has concluded major economic agreements with Russia in recent years. In a protest after the Russian invasion Thursday, Hungary’s opposition parties demanded he pull out of those agreements and abandon his pro-Russian strategy.