I've frankly never been able to understand why he was betting on this particular horse in the first place. I just assumed he was privately bought and sold.

[–] Mika@piefed.ca 17 points 21 hours ago

Cause russia tolerate and even endorse corruption. Plus, by so far, he was able to extort the EU demanding financing for important votes.

[–] ladicius@lemmy.world 16 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Just like the pedophile that was videotaped with some minors in Mozcow in the 90s and now is the upcoming Führer of the Slaveholder States of America.

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 13 points 22 hours ago

Blackmail is definitely another attractive explanation. It's certainly not for the good of Hungary, that's for sure.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

My guess is he thought he could exploit having sweet deals from Russia, because in Russia things generally cost half what they do in EU. And then on the other hand, also enjoy EU benefits and export at higher prices to an open EU market.
It was probably working pretty well at the beginning, but as Hungary's cooperation with Russia became more an more at odds with the interests of EU, it became a huge problem, but at that point, Hungary was tied to Russia in some crucial ways on energy infra structure, that would be very expensive to get out of. So instead Orban chose to try to delay or prevent EU efforts to stifle Russia, because that was the least expensive way for Hungary to deal with the situation.
But as the conflict of interest between EU and Hungary grew ever more serious, it became a continuously bigger problem for Hungary.
Orban tried to gain advantages from both sides, but now that strategy is seriously failing.