Russian President Vladimir Putin was due in Budapest today, showing the world he still has a friend in Europe in Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban despite East-West tension over Ukraine.
Though Putin can count on some support in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Greece and Italy, Orban is unquestionably his closest ally despite gaining prominence as a strong anti-Russian and anti-communist leader in the last days of communism in the 80s.
Fears that tough-talking Orban is increasingly cosying up to Putin threw some 2,000 people into the street yesterday evening to protest against the Russian leader's first visit to Budapest since 2006,
"We resent Orban making a fool of Hungary by inviting Putin here to do secret deals while there is a war next door in Ukraine," Marton Gulyas, one of the organisers, told AFP.
Shunned by most European leaders in recent months due to events in Ukraine and rights issues in Russia, Putin flies in for a few hours in Budapest to lay wreaths to fallen soldiers and discuss gas supply and nuclear energy deals.
"This trip is clearly more important for Putin than for Orban," analyst Andras Racz of the Finish Institute for International Affairs told AFP.
"Putin can demonstrate to other Western countries that he has an ally who is an EU and NATO member, that EU unity is not that strong after all," he added
The analyst said Hungary's allies are worried that as a NATO member it is strengthening its alliance with Russia in spite of the conflict in neighboring Ukraine.
Hungary supported EU sanctions against Russia over Ukraine in the past year, but has been vocal about their negative impact.
Last year, Orban said the bloc had "shot itself in the foot" by damaging commercial relations with Moscow.
Putin might put pressure on Orban to stall further European sanctions.
