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Hungary
(Saturday), March 21, 2026 5:13 pm CET U.S. President Trump today reiterated his “complete and total endorsement” of Orbán in the Hungarian elections. And U.S. Vice President Vance is reportedly due to fly to Budapest in April in support of the prime minister. “The prime minister has been a strong leader whose shown the entire world what’s possible when you defend your borders, your culture, your heritage, your sovereignty and your values,” Trump said in a video address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) taking place in Hungary today. Trump praised Hungary’s “strong borders” and said the country will continue to “work very hard on immigration,” and said Europe has to “work very hard” to solve 'a lot of problems' around immigration. The American president said that Hungary and the U.S. are “showing the way toward a revitalized West,” and would also work “hard together on energy.” (Source: Politico - U.S.)
See: March 21, 2026 10:59 a.m. President Trump's video address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) taking place in Hungary on Saturday. (Source: X / Orbán Viktor)
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13:26, 21/03/2026, Saturday Human Rights Watch * has issued an urgent call for Hungarian authorities to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he set foot in the country, as the Israeli leader prepares for a visit beginning today. The visit comes just weeks before Hungary’s April 12 general elections, adding political dimensions to the diplomatic encounter. (Source: Yeni Safak / Anadolu Agency = Turkey )
* with the main headquarters located in New York City
(Saturday), March 21, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EDT During Orbán’s first stint as prime minister, from July 1998 to May 2002, Hungary joined NATO - over Moscow’s objections. After Orbán was elected for the second time, in 2010, "they made a deal about Russian energy imports for Hungary”. Russian energy has been supplied not directly but through different intermediaries. For years, a central node in this relationship has been MOL, the Hungarian oil and gas conglomerate that is one of the country’s biggest and most profitable companies benefiting from the supply of cheap Russian energy. Just before Orbán became prime minister, MOL sold a 50 percent stake in its gas trader MOL Energy Trade, later renamed MET, to a Cyprus-registered company, Normeston Trading. Once Orbán was in power, Normeston transferred its stake in MET in 2011 to two of Orbán’s closest allies, allowing them to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends through the purchase of cheaper gas on the European spot market. MET’s management bought out the shareholders in 2018. Another key way for Orbán and his allies to benefit came through Orbán’s decision to award a contract to Russia’s state nuclear monopoly Rosatom to build the Paks II nuclear reactor in 2014 with Russian state bank VEB providing a 10 billion euro loan for the project, of which 40 percent was to go to Hungarian subcontractors. Orbán’s childhood friend Mészáros was a key beneficiary. He received tens of millions of dollars’ worth of construction deals, according to E.U. procurement contracts, helping him become Hungary’s richest man and earn the moniker Orbán’s wallet. In an internal report for the Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) ’obtained and authenticated by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post’, ’the operatives proposed a way to fundamentally alter the entire paradigm of the election campaign - the staging of an assassination attempt on Viktor Orban.’ Such an incident will shift the perception of the campaign out of the rational realm of socioeconomic questions into an emotional one, where the key themes will become state security and the stability and defense of the political system, the 'operatives wrote in a report prepared for the SVR’s main unit for political influence operations, Directorate MS, or Active Measures Department'. "There have been no physical attacks on Orbán". Orbán last week accused Ukrainians of plotting physical attacks on his family, while Zelensky earlier this month, speaking about Orbán, threatened to give ’this person’s address to our armed forces.’ On Thursday, the Hungarian government said it was banning three Ukrainian citizens from entering its territory. They made threats against Hungary, Orbán and his family. Mere suggestions of staging an attempt on Orbán’s life’ underscores high stakes in the Hungarian race. Orbán said he was moving troops to protect Hungary’s critical energy infrastructure against a potential attack by Ukraine. In the current campaign, Orbán has sought to promote himself as the candidate for peace, while presenting the rival, Magyar, as a stooge of Brussels who would drag Hungary into war on Ukraine’s side. The two candidates held rival rallies on Sunday, which drew ’hundreds of thousands’, with both sides claiming their gatherings were the largest ever. Russia is not the only outside power potentially looking to prop up Orbán. Orbán acted as a bridge for the Kremlin to U.S. conservatives in hopes of forging a new post-liberal world order. Hungarian foreign minister Szijjártó has made 16 official visits to Moscow since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, most recently on March 4 when he met with President Putin. (He ’made regular phone calls during breaks at E.U. meetings to provide his Russian counterpart, Lavrov, with live reports on what’s been discussed and possible solutions, one of the European security officials said’). Secretary of State Rubio visited Budapest last month, telling Orbán that “your success is our success.” Orbán has made no secret that he hopes Trump will do the same. Szijjártó said Vice President Vance will visit instead. And Kremlin spokesman Peskov dismissed questions from The Post about the SVR strategy document: 'This is another example of disinformation, he said." (Source: The Washington Post - U.S.)
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