Hungary opens the gates for Russians and Belarusians
The Hungarian government has issued a decree extending its "national card" immigration programme, which had previously applied to citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine, to Russians and Belarusians. The national card allows holders to stay in Hungary, bring their family, extend their stay as often as they like - and potentially gain access to the Schengen Area. Europe's press calls for consequences.
Suspend Hungary from Schengen
Eesti Päevaleht writes:
“Hungary's current behaviour is showing yet again how the lack of democracy in one member state can cause problems for us all. Orbán's solidarity with Russia would be the sovereign right of a nation if we had not agreed on a common foreign policy for the European Union. ... Opening up a hole in the border system for Russian and Belarusian citizens invalidates the efforts of all the other countries. Temporarily expelling Hungary from the Schengen system could be a pretty effective way of communicating to voters there that autocracy has no place in the EU.”
This could anger the EU
This step could have serious consequences for Hungary, Magyar Hang worries:
“With great difficulty - in response to US pressure - we threw out the spy bank [the Russian International Investment Bank IIB had relocated its headquarters from Moscow to Budapest from 2019 to 2023] and now ten times more people can sneak through this glaringly open gap. And once they are here, they can go wherever they want within the Schengen Area to steal, spy, kill, whatever they have been paid to do. ... The US has just made it more difficult for Hungarian citizens to apply for a facilitated visa precisely because too many fraudsters and crooks now have Hungarian passports. We should not be surprised if the EU decides to clamp down too.”
Lightning response from Brussels?
The EU is giving the Kremlin plenty of time to infiltrate the bloc with its agents, warns Obosrewatel:
“Brussels has traditionally acted 'operationally': The Union's leaders are not planning to discuss this weak point until the next summit of EU leaders in October. By then, anyone Putin wants to be in the EU will already be there. Putin had to involve his 'covert ally' in order to 'shake up' the West again. The so-called 'special operation' in Ukraine is once again not going to plan, the offensive is stalling, so the bunker [ruler] urgently needs to build more momentum in the hybrid war against the EU.”