Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said yesterday that his country would maintain ties with Moscow and urged other European countries to do the same, as the European Union tries to show a united front against Russia after the invasion. of Ukraine.

“We will maintain our economic relations with Russia and that is what we also recommend to our allies,” the Hungarian nationalist prime minister said in his annual State of the Nation address. “The Hungarian government does not consider realistic the idea that Russia is a threat to the security of Hungary or Europe,” he continued, arguing that Europe “is already at war, indirectly, with Russia.”

“We have only one choice: to stay out of the war. It will not be easy, since we are members of NATO and the EU, because there everyone is in favor of war,” he added. He reiterated that it was “vital” for Hungary to join NATO but insisted that his government would not send weapons or cut economic ties with Moscow.

Military aid “started with helmets … now we’re sending tanks, then fighter jets and soon we’ll hear about so-called peacekeepers,” he commented.

Since the start of the war almost a year ago, Orbán’s government has maintained a controversial stance, avoiding criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orban, who had close ties to Putin before the invasion, also refuses to send weapons to Ukraine and instead calls for an immediate ceasefire and the start of peace talks.

According to Orban, the stance taken by Poland and the Baltic countries is “understandable” but the conflict could have developed differently if guarantees had been given that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO. “A year ago, the West decided differently. When Russia launched the attack, the West did not isolate the conflict but reduced it to a pan-European level. It could have been treated as a local regional war or a military conflict between two Slavic countries, as suggested by Hungary,” he continued.

In today’s speech he also criticized EU sanctions against Russia, saying the measures were responsible for high inflation in Hungary, which shot to 25.7% in January.