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Old January 31st, 2024, 03:33 AM   #1
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Russia to Japan: Drop territorial claim if you want a peace treaty
Reuters

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...33f7aa5&ei=129

Quote:
Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev told Japan on Tuesday it would have to drop territorial claims to a group of Pacific islands if it wanted to conclude a peace treaty with Russia formally ending World War Two.

The blunt remarks by Medvedev, a former president who is deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, over what Moscow calls the Kuril islands are likely to anger Japan which lays claim to four of the southernmost islands, which it calls the Northern Territories.

Russia, the main successor state to the Soviet Union, and Japan have never signed a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities during World War Two, with the islands remaining the primary stumbling block.

The islands are located off Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island, and were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two.

Diplomats on both sides once spoke of the possibility of reviving a Soviet-era draft agreement that envisaged returning two of the four islands to Japan as part of a peace deal.

But Russia withdrew from peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the islands in 2022 because of Japanese sanctions over Russia's war in Ukraine and relations have soured further since.

Medvedev said he was respondidipng to comments by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who he said had spoken in favour of a peace treaty with Russia.

"Nobody's against the peace treaty on the understanding that ... the 'territorial question' is closed once and for all in accordance with the constitution of Russia," Medvedev said on his official X account.

In 2020, Russia's constitution was amended to bar handing over territory to a foreign power.

Medvedev, who styles himself as one of the Kremlin's most hardline anti-Western hawks, said Japan would also have to accept that Russia would develop the Kuril islands and station new weapons there.

"We don't give a damn about the 'feelings of the Japanese' concerning the so-called 'Northern Territories'. These are not disputed territories but Russia," said Medvedev.

"And those samurai who feel especially sad can end their life in a traditional Japanese way, by committing seppuku (Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment). If they dare, of course."

Medvedev accused Japan of cosying up to the United States despite the fact that the U.S. military had dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Russia said in December it regarded joint military exercises by Japan, the United States and Australia near Hokkaido to be a "potential security threat". It has complained about Japan - with U.S. help - expanding its military infrastructure and increasing arms purchases.

Japan has periodically expressed unease about Russia beefing up its military infrastructure on the disputed island chain.
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Old January 31st, 2024, 03:33 AM   #2
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Russia Is Fighting for a Treaty That Could Soon Change the Internet Forever
Newsweek

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...33f7aa5&ei=139

Quote:
A committee established through Russia's initiative is finalizing the draft for what would be the first-ever legally binding United Nations treaty to crack down on cybercrime.

But as the provisions of the potential landmark deal take shape in talks that began Monday in New York, Moscow wants the agreement to go even further.

"Whether it has promising results or becomes another failure depends on the member states negotiating the document," Artur Lyukmanov, who serves as director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's International Information Security Department and special representative to President Vladimir Putin on international cooperation on information security, told Newsweek. "Discussions are very difficult."

The effort has made significant progress, however, since it began with a U.N. resolution led by Russia and co-sponsored by 46 other nations to establish the Ad Hoc Committee (AHC) to work toward a U.N. convention on battling illicit online activity.

The resolution ultimately won the support of 79 nations and was successfully adopted in December 2019, despite opposition from 60 other countries, including the United States and a number of Western nations.

While Washington and other critics have since joined the treaty-building process, they have continued to express concerns that a broad, open-ended convention could afford governments sweeping powers to rein in internet freedoms and legalize far-reaching restrictions.

As the seventh and concluding session is held from January 29 to February 9 among the AHC, currently chaired by Algeria and comprised of international experts and representatives, Lyukmanov offered some insight as to where the treaty currently stands—and where he believes it needs to get tougher.

'Modest Successes'

Lyukmanov pointed out what he called three "modest successes" in the latest revisions to the draft text provided by AHC Chair Faouzia Mebarki of Algeria.

The first victory thus far, according to Lyukmanov, is that "the draft convention encourages law-enforcement cooperation throughout the provision of technical assistance."

This, he argued, "is an attempt, still timid and uncertain, to create and subsequently improve a new norm of international law aimed at overcoming technological inequality and neocolonial practices."

Lyukmanov stated that "the draft text includes provisions on combating fraud and other financial crimes," such as the laundering of criminal funds, "as well as combating child pornography," a crime he referred to as "a plague in the information space, which is disseminated by the use of ICTs (information and communication technologies.)"

And finally, he argued that "an essential element of the draft convention is the exchange of electronic evidence."

"It lays the foundation for substantive, depoliticized interaction between law-enforcement agencies and creates mutual legal assistance channels," Lyukmanov said. "This is carried out for the purpose of effective criminal justice against offenders and attackers, who get certain advantages in the use of ICTs due to lack of international regulation of the information space."

Still, he felt the document as it stands falls short of fulfilling the original U.N. resolution's mandate of achieving a "comprehensive treaty" that is "aimed at countering" rather than simply investigating cybercrime. As such, he felt the text constituted only a "slightly modified version" of the Council of Europe-initiated Budapest Convention that marked the first legally binding treaty on cybercrime in history when it was established in 2001.

The Budapest Convention has been ratified by 68 nations, including most of the Western countries and their allies that initially opposed the AHC. They have argued that the convention still holds up more than two decades later. Russia and other countries that backed the push for a new cybercrime treaty, including China, India, Iran and much of the developing world across Asia and Africa, have never signed on to the Budapest Convention.

Lyukmanov asserted that those who drafted the latest version of the new cybercrime treaty have left out "the criminalization of the most dangerous offenses, which have become a scourge for all countries."

"They seriously took into account only arguments of developed countries," Lyukmanov said, "from which we never received an explanation of why they cooperate with each other in matters of countering the dissemination of terrorist and extremist ideas, including even Nazism, as well as drug, weapons, illegal medicines trafficking, but refuse to cooperate under the auspices of the U.N."

"How is this explained from the point of view of not only their domestic legislation, but the current U.N. Security Council resolutions and the recommendations of its Counter-Terrorist Committee?" he added.

To challenge these perceived shortcomings, Lyukmanov said that "Russia has presented its views on this matter to the AHC and calls on it to take a more active, responsible position in the implementation of its decisions of international law, and refrain from excuses that the provisions on countering terrorism and extremism with the use of ICTs are non-consensual."

Coercion to Suicide

Other elements described by Lyukmanov as "disappointing" include "the refusal of some member states to cooperate against children's encouragement of or coercion to suicide with the use of ICTs."

"It is absolutely incomprehensible to us," he said. "So-called teen-death groups have become an international phenomenon. Criminals who are satisfied when coercing a child to suicide from behind the screens of ICTs, have a much in common with recruiters of terrorists and neo-Nazis, distributors of drugs and weapons."

He also argued that the current text "does not provide for the procedure for implementing special investigative techniques, creating platforms and communications channels between law agencies."

Beyond this, Lyukmanov asserted that efforts were being made to "dilute" key elements pertaining to the disclosure of information by making them optional or by "saturating the convention with references to human rights and gender perspective as well as sexual orientation."

"In contrast to Russia, Washington advocates maximum harmonization of the U.N. and Budapest conventions," Lyukmanov said. "This means that instead of a comprehensive approach, as enshrined in the AHC mandate, the countries of the collective West are agitating for a narrow scope and criminalization, and are aggressively imposing gender and human rights issues."

He took particular aim at what he described as a group of around 40 to 50 countries, including the U.S., the European Union and their allies, that he alleged was attempting to impose a weaker treaty on the majority of nations while having strong legislation against cybercrime at home.

Having opposed the initial efforts to establish the AHC in the first place, these nations have, in Lyukmanov's view, "moved from direct rejection of the idea of a future convention to tactics of covert sabotage and emasculating the content of the international treaty from within."

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.

In a statement Monday, the State Department said that "the United States is committed to adopting a consensus-based criminal justice instrument for a limited set of crimes that advances international cooperation while ensuring strong human rights protections and safeguards."

Such a treaty, the State Department said, "would allow for enhanced international cooperation and increased capacity to combat cybercrime."

The Fight to the Finish Line

Amid lingering concerns that the new treaty may allow for overly broad interpretations of what constitutes "serious" online offenses, a submission to the AHC put forth by Canada on behalf of the EU, its member states and 22 other countries, including the U.S., warned that "the scope of the draft Convention and its constituent components has expanded significantly beyond a clearly defined list of core cyber-dependent offences and a few consensus-based cyber-enabled offences."

"There is a continuous push by some to further expand the list of Convention offences, introduce broad catch-all provisions, and generally increase ambiguity as to the scope and application of the treaty," the statement added.

From Lyukmanov's perspective, however, such protests are not rooted in human rights concerns, but rather "the fact that the U.N. process does not fit into the U.S.-imposed paradigm of a 'rules-based order'" in which Lyukmanov said "international cooperation is not implied."

"But anyway, the world still does have some time to change the situation for the better and to agree on a truly effective and sought-after treaty at the concluding session of the Ad Hoc Committee," Lyukmanov said.

"There is no alternative to a future comprehensive convention under the auspices of the U.N.," he added. "We call on U.N. member states to commit themselves to fulfilling the mandate to develop a comprehensive international agreement."
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Old January 31st, 2024, 06:41 AM   #3
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Russia to Japan: Drop territorial claim if you want a peace treaty
Reuters

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...33f7aa5&ei=129
Does Russia know the US is treaty bound to protect Japan? I thought they did. Japan should roll the dice on this. I will enjoy watching them clown show their way to another embarrassing defeat.

Last edited by Priapus; January 31st, 2024 at 06:42 AM.. Reason: typo
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Old January 31st, 2024, 07:30 PM   #4
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Far from Ukraine and Gaza, Another War Just Killed 50,000 People
Newsweek

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...e92235e6&ei=62

Quote:
Unmarked by global street protests or quarrels over funding in Congress, three years of war in Myanmar have killed an estimated 50,000 people since the army seized power in the Southeast Asian country.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) ranks Myanmar as the most violent of 50 wars it monitors around the world, noting the hundreds of small militias that have formed to fight the junta since the February 1, 2021, coup against elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The project told Newsweek it estimates a death toll of at least 47,000 in violence in Myanmar since then, including at least 8,000 civilians, but says that figure is conservative and that the total death toll could well be another 12,000 higher, including a further 2,000 civilian deaths.

"The number of attacks by the military over the years has been massive, but there has been kind of an increase with the rebels taking over more and more territory at the end of the year," Andrea Carboni, ACLED's head of analysis, said in an interview.

Myanmar's Information Ministry did not answer phone calls to seek comment.

Fighting in Myanmar intensified late last year as an alliance of insurgent groups made major gains against the forces of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, who is under Western sanctions and gets weapons principally from Russia and China. The United Nations says some 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war.

Despite the human impact, the war has drawn much less attention than Ukraine or Gaza either from Western governments or from activists and protesters.

While the death toll reported in Ukraine has been higher than that in Myanmar since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and fighting between Israel and Hamas has been more intense since the Palestinian group's attack on Israel set off the latest round of conflict there on October 7, Myanmar's position also makes it of less strategic interest to the United States and other Western powers than Europe or the Middle East.

Resistance

"Myanmar's people are exhausted and no longer looking externally for a solution to their immediate problem. They have rallied and pushed on with their resistance campaign from inside the country. This is the only reason why we are even able to say that there is still hope, and they are the reason for what appears a possible breakthrough recently in weakening the military's grip in some parts of the country," the Human Rights Watch nonprofit's Myanmar researcher Manny Maung told Newsweek.

"Myanmar's economy is in a shambles and the military is continuing to commit human rights abuses that include mass killings, arbitrary detention, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Rather than feeling the pressure from the international community to stop its abuses, the military junta appears emboldened to commit ongoing human rights violations," Maung said.

Google Trends shows how much less interest there has been in Myanmar compared to Gaza or Ukraine. An index of worldwide searches over the past month for Ukraine varied between 83 and 100 and for Gaza between 30 and 46, but for Myanmar it was effectively zero.

"Day by day, the junta in Myanmar mercilessly slaughters its own people without consequences," Thinzar Shunlei Yi, advocacy coordinator with the grassroots coalition ACDD told Newsweek. "The global community, unfortunately, turns a blind eye, giving attention to other urgent conflicts. This isn't just 'internal affairs'; it's a blatant display of ignorance, particularly from hypocritical leaders in our neighboring countries, especially China and Russia."

U.S. support for both Ukraine's war and for Israel has come under increasing domestic pressure, with some critics questioning the cost of the former and others Israel's conduct in its assault into the densely populated Gaza Strip.

Western countries have largely delegated diplomatic efforts over Myanmar to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional group, but the junta has been dismissive of its attempts to address the crisis.

"Myanmar is fiendishly complex and its rulers do not respond to more traditional diplomatic and other overtures to engage in dialogue," Laetitia van den Assum, a former Dutch ambassador to Thailand and Myanmar, told Newsweek. "You can engage the junta, but only if you accept its terms and ditch your own. That also explains its isolation."

ACLED's Carboni said that the risk of worsening conflict had increased as an embattled army was forced onto the defensive and became increasing reliant on bombing and shelling.

"Air strikes and shelling are typically some of the most lethal forms of violence simply because they are much less precise, and of course they often happen in populated areas or in rebel-held villages even just to depress populations to subdue them rather than to defeat them on the field," he said.

Myanmar's army seized power after Suu Kyi, now 78, trounced a pro-military party in elections it said were irregular. The coup cut short a tentative experiment with democracy after decades of army rule. The junta sentenced Suu Kyi on charges for which she is serving combined jail sentences of 27 years, and which her supporters say were trumped up.

Although the army promised elections, it has repeatedly extended a state of emergency as it has come under growing military pressure from enemies including an underground National Unity Government and its People's Defense Forces as well as ethnic militia groups.

A Myanmar conflict map maintained by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a British think tank, shows conflict across nearly all populated areas.

"We pledge to persist in our revolutionary endeavours, maintaining unwavering cooperation and collaboration with our allied revolutionary forces," the National Unity Government and allied forces said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Old January 31st, 2024, 07:31 PM   #5
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China has indisputable sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal in South China Sea -Coast Guard
Reuters

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...92235e6&ei=101

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China has indisputable sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal and its adjacent waters, and has always resolutely countered infringements by the Philippines, a spokesperson for China Coast Guard said in a statement released late Tuesday.

The spokesperson said four Philippine personnel illegally intruded in certain areas on Jan. 28, and the Coast Guard warned them to leave in accordance with the law. The interaction was "professional and standardised", according to the statement.

Accusations and runs-in have occurred frequently between the two countries over the past year over disputed territorial areas of the South China Sea.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, which has angered neighbouring countries that dispute some boundaries they say cut into their exclusive economic zones.

"China's Coast Guard will, as always, defend and enforce" the law in waters under the country's jurisdiction, the statement said, citing the spokesperson.

China routinely conducts patrols of the South China Sea even as tensions simmer between it and the Philippines, which recently had its own joint military patrol in the region with its ally - the United States - drawing the ire of China.

The spokesperson said the Coast Guard will firmly safeguard national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.
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Old February 1st, 2024, 02:12 AM   #6
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Two San Diego-based aircraft carriers flex their muscles in Philippine Sea
San Diego Union-Tribune

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tw...16a8cbe&ei=123

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In a show of force, the San Diego-based aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed in formation Wednesday in the Philippine Sea with ships from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The formation was part of a Multi-Large Deck Event, a force-readiness exercise meant to show that the two countries are committed to their partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific, the Navy said.

The operation comes amid rising tension with China, which has threatened to invade Taiwan and has suggested that it could interfere with the movement of commercial shipping in the South China Sea.

The Vinson and Roosevelt head up strike groups that collectively include nine other warships, including the San Diego-based cruisers USS Lake Erie and USS Princeton and the destroyers USS Sterett and USS Halsey. Another San Diego-based vessel, the hospital ship USNS Mercy, also is operating in the Indo-Pacific.

San Diego's third aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, has been operating in Southern California waters recently.

Big bucks

The Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) in San Diego contributed at least $3.14 billion to the local economy in fiscal 2022, according to a study released Tuesday by the San Diego Military Advisory Council and the University of San Diego's Knauss School of Business.

NAVWAR is a sprawling 70.3-acre research center along Interstate 5 that develops and maintains communications systems and networks that span various military platforms. Regionally, it employs more than 5,300 people.

The Navy is working with Manchester Financial Group to redevelop the site, which is mostly composed of five-story buildings dating back to World War II.

Ship-shape

General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego has been awarded a $53.1 million contract by the Defense Department to perform technology upgrades on two destroyers — the USS Chung-Hoon, which is based in San Diego, and the USS James E. Williams, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia. The work will be done this year.
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Old February 2nd, 2024, 08:48 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by DTravel View Post
China has indisputable sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal in South China Sea -Coast Guard
Reuters

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...92235e6&ei=101
Even when the ICJ clearly states you haven't...! still we know what happens when stroppy outfits lose cases at the ICJ.....its BAU till the next crisis-as current events in various locations prove...
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Old February 2nd, 2024, 06:02 PM   #8
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Two San Diego-based aircraft carriers flex their muscles in Philippine Sea
San Diego Union-Tribune
Two Carrier Strike Groups and a Amphibious Ready Group, along with our partners sends a very strong message that China does not in fact own the South China Sea. We also sailed a destroyer through the Strait of Taiwan at the same time. It's hard to describe the combat power of two CSGs and a ARG. It's also very notable that the only country to protest this was China. The other countries in the South China Sea welcome the display. The United States Naval Institute is my go-to source for tracking our fleet, and provides a list of the sips involved. Bravo Zulu to all the sailors from all the nations who participated!
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Old February 2nd, 2024, 07:23 PM   #9
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Orban Escalates Standoff Over Sweden’s Accession to NATO
Bloomberg

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...de0078f&ei=110

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(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban escalated a standoff with Western allies over Sweden’s NATO accession after a senior US lawmaker called for potential sanctions against the lone holdout.

Orban’s lawmakers won’t allow a parliamentary vote on ratifying Sweden’s bid until the Nordic country’s leader visits Budapest to meet with his Hungarian counterpart, ATV television reported, citing the ruling Fidesz party. They’ll also boycott a special session the opposition called for Monday on the accession, ATV said on its website.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom declined to comment on the report. Fidesz’s parliamentary group didn’t respond to a phone call or email from Bloomberg.

Orban’s invitation for Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to visit Hungary was extended last month in what was seen as a face-saving step for the nationalist leader after he broke a pledge to ratify Sweden’s accession before Turkey.

Patience over Orban’s obstructionism is wearing thin both inside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. On Thursday, Orban finally dropped his opposition to a €50 billion ($54.4 billion) EU aid package for Ukraine after becoming the only of the bloc’s 27 leaders to veto it in December.

Hungary is the “least reliable” NATO member,” US Senator Ben Cardin, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Thursday. He urged the Biden administration to consider imposing sanctions on Hungary for corruption and also to weigh the possibility of scrapping its participation in a US visa-waiver program.

Kristersson met Orban on Thursday on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels, but said he preferred to come to Budapest only after Hungary’s parliament ratified Sweden’s NATO bid.

He’s been keen to avoid any optics of negotiating with Orban over his country’s accession, after Sweden received an invitation last year to join the military alliance. Sweden’s membership is seen as crucial for bolstering NATO’s ability to defend its eastern flank nearly two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Orban has sought to attribute the delay to his own lawmakers, who he said have been hurt by Swedish criticism over the erosion of democracy in Hungary. In fact, Fidesz has a supermajority in the chamber and the party is tightly controlled by the prime minister.
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Old February 3rd, 2024, 02:12 AM   #10
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Hungary’s Orban folds before the E.U. and reminds all of his weakness
The Washington Post

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...a7f3c1f5&ei=14

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For years, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has loomed over Europe like a continental boogeyman. The long-ruling illiberal leader makes no secret of his distaste for the liberal underpinnings of the European Union’s political project. Orban rails against E.U. censure and criticism over the erosion of Hungarian democracy that’s taken place under his watch. And he has stymied the continental bloc’s ability to muster a robust, collective response to support Ukraine’s resistance to Russia — whose president is conspicuously close to Orban.

Yet events Thursday offered a reminder not of Orban’s outsize influence, but his relative weakness. At emergency meetings in Brussels, Orban relented from previous threats to spike an E.U. plan to deliver $54 billion in aid to Ukraine over the next four years. “The Hungarian leader had pushed hard for the possibility of a yearly veto over the money for Ukraine,” explained my colleague Emily Rauhala. “Instead, leaders agreed to reviews of how it is being spent — with no veto.”

Orban’s climbdown came after he had used a Hungarian veto to block the Ukraine funding package in December. But weeks of negotiations and a tacit pressure campaign against Budapest appeared to have changed his tune. Right-wing Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, once seen as Orban’s fellow traveler, and French president Emmanuel Macron embarked on delicate charm offensives, according to Politico Europe. Meanwhile, officials in Brussels leaked plans to punish Hungary’s economy should Orban further impede support for Ukraine, and floated other punitive measures including invoking E.U. mechanisms to strip Budapest of its voting rights.

Orban grumbled about E.U. “blackmail” but nevertheless meekly acquiesced on Thursday. European leaders made no apparent significant concessions to the Hungarian leader to bring him on side. The moment illustrated Orban’s isolation: Even ideological allies, like Meloni and Slovak prime minister Robert Fico, who met with Ukrainian officials last week, have softened their positions on supporting Kyiv.

For all his histrionics, Orban needs Europe more than Europe needs him. With his ruling Fidesz party entrenched in power, the Hungarian prime minister has used his platform to inveigh against E.U. edicts and wave the flag of right-wing culture war on the continent. Orban’s antics help polarize the conversation within his country, turning the opposition into would-be abettors of overweening foreign technocrats. All the while, Hungary, one of the more economically irrelevant nations within the bloc, draws vital funds from Brussels as an E.U. member state, though the tap has been partially turned off in recent years over E.U. anger at Orban’s alleged violations of the bloc’s rule-of-law provisions.

“Hungary receives E.U. transfers that in good years can exceed 4 percent of GDP,” explained the Economist. “A mechanism inserted into the club’s budget in 2020 allows it to impose financial sanctions on governments that violate E.U. rule-of-law provisions. These have helped extract concessions from Orban’s government, for example on establishing anti-corruption safeguards. The E.U. continues to withhold funds worth €21bn.”

For some European officials, Orban’s intransigence over Ukraine was the last straw. “There is no problem with so-called Ukraine fatigue,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said as he entered the summit Thursday. “We have Orban fatigue right now in Brussels.” Tusk, a center-right politician and former president of the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, is a noted antagonist of the illiberal right both in Poland and elsewhere. “This is for Mister Orban to decide,” he continued, “If Hungary is part of our community, or not.”

Others sense an opportunity to further tighten the screws on Budapest. Orban “has given up his veto, received nothing in return and is completely isolated among the heads of state and government,” Daniel Freund, a German member of the European Parliament from the Greens, said in an email statement. “Member states’ resolute stance towards Hungary has paid off. The lesson from this summit is that Viktor Orban can only be persuaded with pressure and a firm hand. There can be no more financial gifts to Budapest. Now it is time to promote the use of all available instruments for the defense of the rule of law.”

Still, Orban has reasons not to be disheartened. Whatever the humiliation endured this week, the political winds may still be blowing in his direction. The specter of former president Donald Trump, a staunch Orban ally, returning to the White House hangs over Europe. A slate of recent national elections in Europe have yielded victories for the far right. Pollsters predict a significant gain for the continent’s far-right factions and anti-establishment populists in European parliamentary elections later this year, and the further shrinking of the continent’s traditional center-left and center-right blocs.

Orban has long seen himself at the tip of the spear of this movement, the first rumble in a tectonic shift in the mainstream politics of the West. His unapologetic nationalism, anti-migrant grandstanding and incessant fulminating against liberal elites have made him the darling of the American right — and even a role model for U.S. politicians desperate for the same satisfaction of cowing the liberal establishment.

“We need a Brussels that stands up for the self-esteem of nations, allows countries to choose their way of life, regulates the market but won’t tell a Pole, a Hungarian or a Portuguese how they should live,” Orban said on Hungarian TV late last year. “Our plan is not to leave the E.U.,” he added. “Our plan is to conquer it.”

That’s still a pipe dream, but Orban has a longer runway to enact his plans than the bulk of his European counterparts. “He is playing a very long game, and has more time than most,” an E.U. diplomat told the Financial Times. “Quite honestly, he is better at playing the game than most, too.”
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I rage and weep for my country.
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I can reup screencaps, other material might have been lost.
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