Comments by "Nigel Johnson" (@nigeljohnson9820) on "Hungary's Orbán under fire for Moscow meeting with Putin" video.

  1. Viktor Orban has highlighted an issue in Putin's campaign, that of gas supply and sales to the EU. It is not by chance that the russian gas pipeline runs through Ukraine, and the Norstream 2 pipeline does not. The EU is aware that Russia may turn the gas supply into a weapon for blackmail. Orban comments have removed this threat from the unspoken shadows and shone a light on it. Even before Putin has had a chance to use this weapon, Orban has put his hands up and pragmatically surrounded in the interests of the Hungarian Energy supply and that of the EU. While Putin, might have been keeping this weapon up his sleeves for a cold winter, he knows he can only use this once, and in the long term it would damage Russia as a credible and reliable energy supplier. As the old adage goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Putin is making contingency plans, by building a gas pipeline to supply China, in case the EU makes other arrangements, but China will also be watching to see if Putin is willing to use gas as a weapon. The Chinese will not be keen to make the same mistake as the EU, and make themselves vulnerable to russian energy blackmail. So Orban is most likely wrong that Putin will be willing to p!ay this card and has therefore surrendered both preemptively and unnecessarily.
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