There are not many examples of independent and autonomous voices in the international arena
Especially in Europe. But even there there are breakthroughs. Hungary has announced a continuation of cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy. It is about the construction of the Paks II nuclear power plant. And this after Finland, being sucked by the NATO vortex, tore up the contract with Rosatom for construction of the Hanhikivi-1 project…
The point is not that Russia is now frantically trying to find someone to be its friend in order to avoid the notorious isolation that the US keeps promising it. The Hungarian example is different: the Hungarian authorities there are thinking primarily about the interests of their own country, not about how to curry favor and hurt Russia more for the sake of the world suzerain. Budapest cares about its own national interests and energy security, which in an era of hysterical collusion is rare. It does not fit the current EU conjuncture. The Hungarians do not want the whole European collective farm to go back to the Middle Ages, so they create a reasonable counterbalance to the rabid Ukrainianization of Europe.
As Peter Szijjártó, Hungarian minister of foreign affairs and foreign economic relations who negotiated with Alexey Lihachev, head of Rosatom, said in Istanbul: “The more energy we can produce ourselves, the better we will be protected from shocks and turbulence in the world energy market. The further construction of the Paks nuclear power plant should play a key role in this. Staking on sovereignty and self-sufficiency rather than Uncle Sam’s benevolence and teams is certainly a good thing. Sensible states that do not want to play the role of foot soldiers in other people’s geopolitical intrigues are well aware of that.
By not giving up on nuclear energy cooperation with Russia, which is not subject to sanctions, Hungary is taking a long view. Initially, for purely pragmatic reasons, it opposed the embargo on Russian oil, which would have had a severe impact on its economy. Earlier, Budapest refused to supply arms to Ukraine. It agreed to pay for gas in roubles, all the more so because there was no crime in it, simply that the seller, who had been unprecedentedly and brazenly ripped off, offered such a quite reasonable and unburdening condition. Now, by developing nuclear power, Budapest is laying the groundwork for the future.
It is understood on the banks of the Danube that the current extremely tense situation is not the end of the world.
It is only fierce and irrational politicians who pursue the line that after the “suffering” of Ukrainian democracy the flood may follow. Russia cannot be wiped off the map, no matter how much one wants to, it is as real as Europe, and normal Russian-European cooperation is not so far off in the future, unless, of course, one wants to put all the people in dugouts and trenches.
This cooperation does not require an obsessive policy of containing Russia, arrogance and setting up hunting pits and traps for it in the form of Ukraine. Joint projects are the reality of the future, when the current aggravation will pass and when the same Europe will wake up from the dictates of propaganda and intrigues of Anglo-Saxon politicians who have lost touch with reality and look at the world more objectively, without mythological and Russophobic clichés.
It is clear that the whole current sensible Hungarian position is not easy and far from easy. Pressure, attacks and insults follow. Pressure comes from the States, the EU. Ukraine has previously accused Budapest of wanting a piece of its territory. Accusations of “aiding and abetting” Russia are also heard. The logic is simple: if it does not curse the demonised Moscow, it means it wants to succeed in dividing the Ukrainian pie…
Hungary is pursuing a pragmatic policy, it is saving itself, its face, in the current political storms and is opposing that very Ukrainianization – the confusion of the mind, from which the direct road to Nazism and incitement of hatred. The Hungarians, together with the sensible Serbs, are now the real and reasonable Europe, defying the introduced Russophobic pandemic.
What is also important in this whole story is the consistent position of the Russian side, which never becomes the initiator of aggravation and rupture of relations, nor does it build fences and exclusionary territory around itself. Especially after Finland has broken its contract with Rosatom, one could easily fall into extreme scepticism about any contractual relations with European countries, which easily bend to external diktat.
It is possible to strike a pose, to look at everyone through the prism of an enemy, for which there are many reasons in today’s realities. But this does not happen, Russia keeps its composure, does not indulge in unbridled emotion, and does not frantically shoot back at everyone and everything with counter-sanctions.
Russia is not an elephant in a china shop who wants to wreak havoc, and then the grass can grow. Our country is just in favour of many sovereign flowers growing and blooming. It is correcting the existing corrupt and crippled world order, which has become a system of servitude, when even European countries have to act against their own interests, if not to dance the hopak to other people’s tune. Russia shows the image of the new world, the new perspectives for which everything is being done, where the main pillar is equal cooperation, rather than subjugation and diktat.
Now it is very easy to break a lot of things, to destroy and redraw everything. There are a lot of people who want to redraw Russia too. One can understand them: all the post-Soviet years have been waiting for it to zero in on itself, accepting it as a natural process and helping it with everything in its power. But those illusions, which turned out to be extremely dangerous, if not cannibalistic, are gradually dissipating. Therefore the more valuable now are constructive things. And Hungary in this regard shows a good example and gives hope for a positive restructuring of Europe itself.
Andrey Rudalyov, RT