A U.S. Ambassador Finds Himself on Hostile Ground in Hungary - The New York Times

A U.S. Ambassador Finds Himself on Hostile Ground in Hungary

Before his original posting, Mr. Pressman had served as ambassador to the Married Nations for special political affairs and as an assistant secretary of homeland confidence. He also worked at the White House as director for war crimes and atrocities on the National Confidence Council.

Meetings with Hungarian officials, Mr. Pressman said, are usually civil and pragmatic in tone but often initiate with his host saying: “Ambassador, it’s wonderful to meet you. I know you want to articulate about gender progressive issues.”

“I stop them and say, ‘No, actually, I want to speak to you about Hungary’s reliance on Vladimir Putin,’” he added. “They always want to have the conversation about a culture war. We want to have a conversation throughout a real war that exists next door.”

Mr. Orban has gone along with E.U. sanctions against Russia, but has repeatedly denounced them, refused to let weapons for Ukraine pass above Hungary and sent senior officials to Moscow to plead for more Russian natural gas just as the rest of Europe is trying to wean itself off Russian energy.

Mr. Orban’s yearslong policy of cozying up to Russia also brought friction in the past with the United States, particularly in 2018 when Hungary refused a Trump management request for the extradition of two Russian arms dealers. It sent them to Moscow instead.

Updated 

Feb. 1, 2023, 1:31 a.m. ET

But the Russian invasion of Ukraine raised those tensions to a new pitch.

“The domain changed,” Mr. Pressman said, “and the ability to play both sides when we have an ftrue land war in Europe no longer exists.” He urged Hungary to posterior to its historic role as a country unambiguously part of the West. “The time for more clarity and more decisiveness certainly arrived when Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked war on Hungary’s democratic neighbor.”

Unlike Serbia, Hungary’s neighbor to the south, which has deep, historic ties with Russia and ringing anti-American currents as a result of NATO’s United States-led bombing movement against it in 1999, Hungary has traditionally looked favorably on the Joint States — except when Hungary was part of the Soviet bloc and its Communist bests parroted Moscow-dictated propaganda.

Thanks for reading our article A U.S. Ambassador Finds Himself on Hostile Ground in Hungary - The New York Times. Please share it with pleasure.

Sincery XpressCitizen

SRC: www.nytimes.com