The Western strategy for defeating Russia’s ongoing invasion of eastern Ukraine has “failed,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said during a visit to the South Caucasus nation of Georgia.
“Sanctions [on Russia] are not working,” Szijjarto said in remarks to Georgia’s Imedi television channel—later picked up by the local media—on Oct. 29.
“And the impact of [Western] weapon deliveries has not changed the reality on the ground.
“It’s clear this strategy has failed.”
He made the assertion while visiting Georgia, which held contentious parliamentary polls earlier this week.
According to Georgia’s electoral commission, the ruling Georgian Dream party won the election with almost 54 percent of all votes cast.
The opposition disputes the outcome, claiming that the vote was rigged in the ruling party’s favor and citing reports of electoral irregularities.
The United States, NATO, and the European Union—all longtime critics of Georgian Dream—have called for a “full investigation” of the poll results.
In recent months, Washington and Brussels have taken punitive measures against Georgia’s leadership, accusing them of engaging in “anti-democratic practices.”
These include Georgia’s recent adoption of a “foreign agents” law, which requires organizations to register with the government if more than 20 percent of their funding derives from foreign sources.
Budapest Breaks Ranks
Following Georgia’s parliamentary poll, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, accompanied by Szijjarto, visited Tbilisi, where he called the election “fair and democratic.”
The nationalist-minded leader’s visit—and his stated support for the poll’s integrity—drew a negative response from EU officials.
In a joint statement, more than a dozen European diplomats declared that Orban “does not speak on behalf of the European Union.”
Despite Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine, Hungary, which currently holds the European Council’s rotating presidency, has kept good relations with Moscow.
With the exception of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Orban has been the only EU leader to call for a negotiated solution to the conflict.
He and Szijjarto also have been vocal critics of unqualified Western support, military and otherwise, for Ukraine’s war effort.
In July, Orban drew the ire of Brussels when he visited Moscow, where he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The European Parliament responded by passing a resolution condemning Orban’s unsanctioned visit as a “blatant violation of the EU’s treaties and common foreign policy.”
Speaking in Tbilisi, Szijjarto claimed that Georgia’s leadership was the target of mounting Western pressure because of its “pro-peace” position regarding the conflict in Ukraine.
Georgian Dream, which came to power in 2012, campaigned on promises to keep Georgia out of another conflict with Russia, with which it shares a lengthy border.
The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since 2008, when Russia won a five-day war with Georgia—initiated by the latter—over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Georgian Dream’s domestic and foreign critics accuse it of employing “Kremlin-style” tactics and seeking to restore relations with Moscow.
On Oct. 28, Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s pro-Western president, accused the ruling party of employing Russian “methodology” to rig the parliamentary poll.
Zourabichvili, whose position as president is largely symbolic, described the election’s outcome as a “Russian special operation,” without providing evidence.
The Kremlin described Zourabichvili’s accusations as “completely baseless.”
In his televised remarks, Szijjarto compared Georgian Dream’s stance on the conflict in Ukraine to that of his own country.
“Like Hungary, the Georgian Dream authorities have faced attacks for taking a pro-peace position,” he said.
Noting that Russian forces in eastern Ukraine “continue to gain territory,” the diplomat said, “It’s time to shift to a pro-peace strategy.”
