Patriotic Russian opera opens in Budapest as first anniversary of war in Ukraine approaches
he chorus at Budapest’s grand opera house sang fortissimo, over crashing, triumphant orchestral chords: “We have defended our fatherland with blood! Glory to the army! Russia’s glory will never fade!”, but from the opera War and Peace, based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel about the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, and adapted by the composer Sergei Prokofiev in the 1940s, with the Soviet defeat of the Nazis fresh in the mind.
Outside the opera house, and all through central Budapest, billboards proclaim: “Hungarians have decided: 97% say NO to sanctions”, referencing polling done by the government, using leading questions to ask the population if they supported EU sanctions on Russia. Although Orbán has signed up to EU sanctions packages, he has frequently criticised them as counterproductive.
Sławomir Dębski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw, a thinktank close to the Polish government, said Orbán’s position on Russia has in effect ended bilateral ties, as well as activities of the Visegrád Four, a grouping of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia that holds frequent leader summits and has often been aligned on issues in the past.
about a meeting between foreign rightwingers and the Hungarian prime minister. In it, he quoted Orbán saying Russia had turned Ukraine into an “ungovernable wreck”, and comparing the country to Afghanistan. “Many people around Orbán are convinced that there’s away back to the status quo ante, and saying bad things about Ukraine is seen as a way to please Russia,” said András Rácz, at the German Council on Foreign Relations.Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The government has claimed the move is aimed at rejuvenating the ranks, but critics question the timing, as well as the lack of public discussion.
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