Orbán is doubling down on Russian energy

Viktor Orbán’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, delivered everything the audience could have asked for. From an emphasis on ‘winning’, through an equivalence between the modern-day left and Cold War communism, to extolling the virtues of Hungary’s border ‘wall’, he covered it all.

Its concluding segment, dedicated to Russia’s war against Ukraine, however, was significant by what it conveniently omitted: Hungary’s deepening energy dependence on Russia. Of course, nobody at CPAC was going to give Orbán a hard time over the fact that, his expression of solidarity with Ukraine notwithstanding, Hungary continues to import 65 percent of its oil and 85 percent of its natural gas from Russia – numbers the Hungarian government shows no intention of reducing.

In fact, the focus in Budapest is, instead, on expanding imports from Russia. In July, foreign minister Péter Szijjártó visited Moscow with the purpose of getting the Kremlin to commit to additional deliveries for the upcoming fall and winter.