{"id":42512,"date":"2025-11-07T11:47:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T11:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rukh.uz.ua\/?p=42512"},"modified":"2025-11-07T11:47:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T11:47:50","slug":"the-orban-regime-as-a-threat-to-europe-hungarys-anti-ukrainian-policy-network-of-influence-in-transcarpathia-and-the-decline-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rukh.uz.ua\/?p=42512","title":{"rendered":"The Orb\u00e1n Regime as a Threat to Europe: Hungary\u2019s Anti-Ukrainian Policy, Network of Influence in Transcarpathia, and the Decline of Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Viktor BED<\/strong>Research Institute for Strategic and Political-Legal Studies<\/strong>Carpathian University named after Augustin Voloshyn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uzhhorod,
7 November 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor BED<\/strong>:<\/strong> When a state stops telling the truth, it begins to serve foreign gods. And then even the smallest hypocrisy becomes treason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geopolitical Realities and the Anti-Ukrainian Course of the Orb\u00e1n Regime<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the Russian-Ukrainian war (2014\u20132024), the policy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n has increasingly exceeded the boundaries acceptable for a democratic member state of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the guise of \u201cdefending national interests,\u201d he has constructed a system of internal authoritarianism and external revisionism, which more and more openly serves the interests of Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Particularly alarming is that on Ukrainian territory, especially in the Transcarpathian region, the Orb\u00e1n government has built a network of political, civic, educational, and cultural structures acting as agents of Budapest\u2019s influence \u2014 all under the pretext of \u201cprotecting the rights of the Hungarian minority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orbanism: A Political Model of Dependence on Moscow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who once began his career as a young democratic reformer, has transformed into a European symbol of political relapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government of Viktor Orb\u00e1n consistently blocks military and financial assistance to Ukraine, systematically undermines the European Union\u2019s sanctions policy against the aggressor state \u2014 the Russian Federation \u2014 and has effectively created within the EU a \u201cfifth column\u201d of the Kremlin to advance Moscow\u2019s geopolitical interests [1].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2022, when Russia\u2019s full-scale war against Ukraine (2014\u20132025) became a turning point for Europe, Hungary has finally turned into a transit hub of Russian influence \u2014 economic, political, and informational \u2014 within the European Union itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orb\u00e1n demonstrates a cynical \u201cpeace-making\u201d rhetoric that in fact serves as a disguised sabotage of Western unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A characteristic marker of this duplicity was his behavior in July 2024: for the first time in more than two years of full-scale war, he visited Kyiv to speak about \u201cthe need for peace,\u201d yet the next day he flew to Moscow to meet with Putin [2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This diplomatic gesture became a demonstrative disregard for Ukrainian sacrifices and a clear signal of Budapest\u2019s true geopolitical priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hungarian Network of Influence in Transcarpathia: Politics under the Cover of \u201cMinorities\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Orb\u00e1n regime deliberately exploits the Hungarian ethnic card in Transcarpathia as a tool of pressure on Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the slogans of \u201cprotecting Hungarian cultural autonomy,\u201d a number of structures operate in Ukraine that maintain a direct political, financial, and personnel connection with Budapest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include the Society of Hungarian Culture of Transcarpathia (TUKZ\/KMKSZ), the Party of Hungarians of Ukraine (KMKSZ), the Democratic Party of Hungarians of Ukraine, and the Ferenc R\u00e1k\u00f3czi II Transcarpathian Hungarian University (formerly \u2014 Institute) [3].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through these organizations, Hungary implements a long-term strategy of influence on the socio-political life of Transcarpathia, using the ethnic factor as an instrument of foreign policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the key public figures representing and promoting this Orb\u00e1nist line are Ildik\u00f3 Orosz \u2014 Deputy of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, Head of the Standing Committee on Education, Science, Spirituality and National Minorities, and President of R\u00e1k\u00f3czi University; and Vasyl (L\u00e1szl\u00f3) Brenzovych \u2014 Head of TUKZ\/KMKSZ and the KMKSZ Party, former Member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (8th convocation, elected from the \u201cPetro Poroshenko Bloc\u201d), who currently hides in Budapest under the political protection of Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criminal proceedings have been initiated against him in Ukraine, including charges of state treason and related anti-Ukrainian activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, through the network of controlled organizations and educational institutions created by them, the Hungarian side is effectively forming a parallel political and cultural space, which in essence undermines Ukraine\u2019s sovereignty in the border region and serves as an instrument of hybrid influence on the state policy of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moral Degradation and Geopolitical Short-Sightedness of the Orb\u00e1n Regime<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the rhetoric about \u201cChristian values,\u201d Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s policy reveals a profound moral decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and his entourage use the Church and traditional symbolism merely as political cover, while in practice they support dictatorships and those responsible for humanitarian crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A striking contrast was demonstrated by the Hungarian opposition: in July 2024, following Russia\u2019s missile strike on the Okhmatdyt Children\u2019s Hospital in Kyiv, opposition politician P\u00e9ter Magyar arrived in the Ukrainian capital, mobilizing benefactors to assist the injured children [4].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This act revealed the true face of European Hungary \u2014 compassionate, humane, and capable of solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against this background, Viktor Orb\u00e1n appears as a morally empty vassal of the Kremlin, one who trades away principles for political survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The external-policy short-sightedness of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s course is equally evident: Budapest is isolating itself within the EU, blocking community decisions, eroding partners\u2019 trust, and internally dismantling independent media, the judiciary, and civil liberties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geopolitical Consequences for Ukraine and Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Ukraine, the policy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n represents a constant hybrid threat along the western border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authorities, public organizations, educational and cultural institutions, and agents of influence controlled by Budapest in the Transcarpathian region consistently promote ideas of \u201cadministrative-territorial autonomy,\u201d \u201cdual citizenship,\u201d and \u201cspecial status for the Hungarians of Transcarpathia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By their nature and methods, these actions reproduce a model of destabilization reminiscent of the Donbas scenario, though in a localized, so-called \u201csoft\u201d form [5].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the European Union, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary \u2014 which has effectively become a political ally of the authoritarian regimes of the Russian Federation and the People\u2019s Republic of China \u2014 has turned into the weak link of European security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a foreign-policy orientation undermines EU unity and its sanctions policy, complicates interaction with NATO, and threatens Europe\u2019s energy and economic independence from Moscow and Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By exploiting access to decision-making within European institutions, the Orb\u00e1n regime effectively serves as a mouthpiece for Russian and Chinese interests inside the European Union, turning Hungary from a partner into an internal factor of destabilization for the Euro-Atlantic community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Hungary does not change its current political course, it will inevitably face further marginalization, financial isolation, and population outflow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History has already known similar periods of Hungarian decline \u2014 notably in 1867\u20131918, when the policies of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the imperial ambitions of the Kingdom of Hungary within it led to the empire\u2019s collapse; and again in 1918\u20131946, when revanchist aspirations and collaboration with totalitarian regimes, including the Nazi Third Reich (1933\u20131945), resulted in another national catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, by repeating the same flawed models of external orientation that once brought it to ruin, Hungary risks again finding itself on the periphery of European development \u2014 trapped between its authoritarian past and a lost democratic future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Conclusions and Geopolitical Guidelines<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary today is not an ally but a systemic problem for Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its foreign policy increasingly resembles a hybrid form of cooperation with authoritarian regimes, undermining the very foundations of democracy, the rule of law, and European solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine, the strategic priorities are clear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n