Hungary is deepening its ties with the Kremlin. The recent decision by the government of national-populist Viktor Orbán to relax one of its work visa formulas to extend it to citizens of Russia and Belarus, in the midst of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, when the warnings of Moscow’s sabotage and hybrid war in Europe are growing and at the lowest point in relations between the bloc and Vladimir Putin, is worrying Brussels. The European Commission is investigating whether the Hungarian scheme falls within the scope of the rules of the community club. Budapest stresses that the procedures for granting residence permits are a national competence and has dismissed any concerns from the EU.
By easing the so-called national card, a new option previously available only to citizens of Serbia and Ukraine, Budapest will allow Russians and Belarusians to work in Hungary for two years, renewable, without needing a security clearance, bring their families to the country and apply for permanent residency after three years.
Hungarian authorities have said that the opening to Russians and Belarusians – which has also been extended to Bosnia, Moldova and North Macedonia – will allow employees from those countries to work, for example, on the expansion of the nuclear plant that the Russian company Rosatom is preparing in the European country; a very controversial project. Within the “national charter” scheme, the Hungarian authorities have not introduced quotas or a limit. A few dozen people from Ukraine and Serbia have benefited from this type of visa so far, according to Hungarian sources. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjartó said on Wednesday that this type of permit is subject to controls.
The episode further inflames the crisis between Budapest and the EU due to Orbán’s closeness to Russia, the blocking of military aid funds for Ukraine and, above all, his visits to Putin in Moscow, to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, and to Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for a return to the White House and a strong critic of aid to Ukraine, in Florida. The meetings to discuss Ukraine in a supposed “peace mission”, which have coincided with the start of Hungary’s six-month presidency of the EU Council, have angered the EU institutions and most capitals. The Union and the European Parliament have demanded retaliation against Budapest and are already boycotting high-level meetings organised by the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council.
Following the controversy, which forced Budapest to give an account of these meetings, Hungary has concluded this “peace mission”, according to a note sent to the member states by the Hungarian Minister for European Affairs, Janos Boka, according to several diplomatic sources. The capitals doubt that this is true and believe that Orbán, a great provocateur, can “reactivate” this manoeuvre when it suits him.
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Hungary’s new visa opening to Russia and Belarus, from where the Kremlin launched part of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has not only raised security concerns in the EU, where the Schengen area allows free movement without passport control, but above all because it widens the rift within the community club where Orbán is increasingly perceived as a Kremlin submarine.
“This is another sign of harmony with Moscow, which the Kremlin is taking note of,” said a senior EU source. Russia’s intelligence services suffered a severe blow after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, when member states expelled hundreds of agents who were in the EU under diplomatic cover. Since then, the Kremlin has been rebuilding its spy network and has changed its tactics. European intelligence sources say that the possibility of less restricted access to EU territory that the new Hungarian visa will present may open up new possibilities, but above all it gives Moscow “fuel” for its divisive discourse.
Hungary’s visa schemes, such as the so-called golden visawhich gives access to a residence permit in exchange for the purchase of a property, have already sparked controversy related to Russia. The son of Sergei Naryshkin, the head of one of the Kremlin’s spy agencies, had a residence permit in Hungary (and therefore freedom of movement in the EU) through a golden visa.
Apart from sanctions on hundreds of Kremlin-linked individuals to curb Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, Russian citizens with a visa for a European country are not restricted from entering the EU. However, it has become more difficult for them to obtain a visa because of bureaucratic difficulties and also to travel to EU territory because Russian airlines are banned from flying over European airspace and EU airlines have stopped flying to Russia.
The president of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, has asked the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, to raise the issue at the next meeting of European leaders in October. Weber says that the new Hungarian formula opens the door to Russian spies on EU territory and believes that the other member states should take action.
“[Abrir la mano podría] “potentially allowing large numbers of Russians to enter Hungary with minimal oversight, posing a serious risk to national security,” the Popular Party president said in his letter to Michel, released by the Financial Times.
The European Commission reiterated on Wednesday that the Kremlin poses a risk to the Union and that it has requested clarification from Budapest. “Russia is a threat to EU security and therefore all instruments at the level of the Union and the Member States must guarantee the security of the Union and also take into account the security of Schengen,” stressed a spokesperson for the European Commission.
Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs has lashed out at Weber, saying he is launching a “hypocritical attack” on the Hungarian government and accusing the conservative German politician and the EU (what he calls the “pro-war European liberal elite”) of sending “millions of illegal migrants to Europe.” “Hungary’s migration regime is the strictest in the EU,” Kovacs said on social media.
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