Peter Buda

21st-century Russian realism:
Crime and No Punishment

Christian nationalist politics is utterly anti-Christian because it alienates some people from Christianity through its hypocrisy, and because it actually makes others friends with hypocrisy under the guise of Christianity.

If one of the warring parties supports you, it's because you're on its side.

So, if the aggressor agrees with Hungary’s MAF description of EU as “pro-war”, it makes it pretty clear what the MAF actually means by that: supporting the war AGAINST the aggressor—in other words, supporting self-defence. If Russia is backing Hungary here, it's only because Hungary is backing them.

Russian Peace Diplomacy Is Essentially Waging War with Other Means My interview on the Hungarian news portal on the meeting between Trump and Putin in Budapest

Full text of the English translation of my interview on the Hungarian independent news site Telex on the meeting between Trump and Putin:

open.substack.com/pub/peterbud...

The success of this idea would mean the victory of Russia’s strategy. It is not because it would result in the creation of a new international order led by Moscow, but precisely because, according to Russian calculations, it would prevent the current international order from functioning.

The choice of Budapest as the location of the meeting between Trump and Putin clearly signals the growing influence of the ideological current that seeks closer alignment with Russia under the banner of the “Christian-nationalist” civilizational shift represented by the Hungarian Prime Minister.

Pope Francis, May 3, 2022:
"Orbán, when I met with him, said that the Russians have a plan, and that everything will be over by May 9 [2022]."

Hope dies last (and hard).

Viktor Orbán, September 30, 2025:
"The American president often asks for my opinion, and I told him: this war is over, the Russians have won, it's a closed matter."

BREAKING: Russian false-flag operation launched with Hungarian involvement A Russian false flag operation has been launched recently, in which the Hungarian media and - apparently against their will - the Hungarian intelligence services are being exploited. (If the Hungarian...

A Russian operation has been launched recently, in which the Hungarian media and - evidently against their will - the Hungarian intelligence services are being abused to accuse Ukraine with preparing sabotage in Poland/Romania under Russian false flag. More:

open.substack.com/pub/peterbud...

No, Moscow does not believe in tears. Let us not believe Moscow either Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev recently announced in an X-post that he had held "very positive talks" with the Russian Orthodox Church to publicly acknowledge the "spiritual contribution to Chr...

Moscow is exploiting Kirk’s murder as part of an influence operation to draw MAGA into an ideological partnership based on Christian nationalism. The aim is not to promote peace & Christianity but to manipulate them in favour of Russian imperialism.

open.substack.com/pub/peterbud...

"In reality, NATO threatens Russia the way a lock threatens a thief."

Perspective | Trump wants the CIA to cooperate with Russia. We tried that. It was a disaster. Putin doesn’t want a constructive relationship with the U.S. He just wants to beat us.

“Inside the CIA, we often joked that, to Putin, win-win means I beat you twice. Putin doesn’t want a constructive relationship with the United States. He just wants to beat us.” (By four CIA veterans, each with some 3 decades of professional experience.)

www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020...

In fact, the opposite of what Vance says is true.

Churchill's account of the decision made with Roosevelt in Casablanca in 1943 regarding how to end the war:
“we have procured the UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER of the criminal forces who plunged the world into storm and ruin.”

We can only hope, then, that the recent attack on Transcarpathia, which is also inhabited by Hungarians, was not intended by Putin to justify assigning a prominent role to this Trojan horse at the negotiating table. 3/3

as evidenced by its leaders' one-sided declarations attacking Ukrainian and Western deterrence in the name of 'peace'. Therefore, including Orban in the negotiations, or raising his profile by holding a high-level meeting in Hungary, would be playing into Russia's hands. 2/3

Since Soviet times, Russia's so-called 'peace negotiation' tactics have served the purpose of enforcing Moscow's war aims by weakening the adversary. Recently, Hungary has played an important role in advancing these tactics, 1/3

Sounds lovely, but it's false and misleading on all accounts. Only one of those powers started shooting, not unfriendly messages but missiles, and this has not come to an end.

You can't fool history.

David Lawrence, a prominent journalist during World War II, on how Nazi propagandists, including pro-Nazi Americans of the group called “America First Committee,” tried to keep the US from getting involved in the war. (In: Bradley W. Hart, Hitler's American Friends, 2018)

“Russia, Hungary can join efforts to protect their nationals in Ukraine,” Sergey Lavrov argued in the same Hungarian state media interview, where he made his case for Russia’s military aggression by claiming to protect Russian minorities. Just wondering what was the implication of this statement.

“The motive, often overlooked here, is that Russia believes it is in an existential, do-or-die confrontation with a far stronger West.”

www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Orban's promised spring cleaning: New bill targets NGOs and the free press - InsightHungary In March, Orbán held a speech about a “shadow army” of critics supposedly funded by foreign powers, pledging to do a “spring cleaning” before the elections

Orban's new bill targets NGOs and the free press - and of course anyone whose opinion falls within the scope of this law. This includes foreign policy, war & peace, ideology & religion, matters of conscience.

insighthungary.444.hu/2025/05/14/o...

ДУГИН: Русија неће постићи договор са Западом док га не победи, ђаво не поштује никакве законе Филозоф је упозорио да је победа још далеко и да би било наивно очекивати било какво примирје или споразум у блиској будућности.

Dugin (main ideologist of Russian imperialism) on the West: “The devil does not respect any laws... We will never reach an agreement with anyone in the West until we win. We must understand that we still have a lot of land to liberate. This will take a long time.”

www.pravda.rs/lat/2025/5/5...

How pathetic to see these extreme right-wing politicians, whose entire political careers have been built on the rhetoric of fighting for “national sovereignty”, turn into peace doves when it comes to - Russia.

Have you said “sorry we lied/were utterly ignorant about this” once in this entire interview?

No need for long reports, the whole problem of climate change can be solved in, well, 24 hours. Just like the war in Ukraine.

No, in fact he was bragging about ending the war in 24 hours. It is now three months and counting. So either he lied or he is responsible for prolonging it. To say nothing of incompetence. Take your pick.

Europe massively affected by effects of climate change in 2024, study finds The year was the hottest ever recorded on the continent, with record temperatures in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Storms were violent and floods widespread, according to the Copernicus report.

Europe massively affected by effects of climate change in 2024, study finds

Climate, Risk, Insurance: The Future of Capitalism CO₂ emissions directly increase the amount of energy trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. This is not a vague or future issue—it is physical reality.

Very important and tangible approach.
“There is also the false comfort of ‘adaptation,’ as many risks do not lend themselves to meaningful adaptation.”

www.linkedin.com/pulse/climat...

The only reason this guy stops at spreading flat-earth conspiracy theories is because he owns a satellite company.